JANUAKY 15 



was much discoloured, the muscle pale and soft, the 

 gills full of parasites and no sea-lice on the body; 

 leaving no doubt that it had recently spent a consider- 

 able time in fresh water. It is impossible that any 

 flood, however heavy, could have washed these fish 

 down from the upper waters against their inclination, 

 because not only does the river flow for two miles, 

 immediately below its confluence with the Minnick, 

 through a canal-like channel called the Loch of Cree 

 with a barely perceptible current, but there are also 

 fully eight miles of winding, muddy, tidal estuary for 

 these fish to traverse before reaching the nets in 

 Wigtown Bay. 



It is to be noted that both the Thurso and the Cree, 

 in which the observations above described were carried 

 on, are small rivers, wherein it was comparatively easy 

 to ascertain the movements of salmon. In large rivers 

 such as the Tay and the Tweed accurate observation is 

 more difficult to conduct ; but in the Spey, which I 

 have fished in many seasons, I am informed that the 

 net-fishers at Speymouth are quite familiar with dark 

 fish returning, as they do not doubt, to the sea in late 

 summer. 



The questions remain, Why do these fish leave the 

 sea and return to it without spawning? What are 

 those heavy winter fish doing in Loch More, fourteen 

 miles from the tide, in December and January, eight or 

 ten months before the first pair of spawners may be 

 seen on the redds ? Answers of varying degrees of 

 probability will suggest themselves to different minds ; 

 the problem does not lend itself to dogmatic opinion, 



