244 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



Others, it is well known, linger long in the descent, and 

 cannot increase at all while in fresh water. Moreover, much 

 must depend upon the good or bad fortune of salmon in 

 finding shoals of food-fishes in the sea. 



While these pages are going through the press, arrive 

 reports of two marked fish recaptured in the Deveron. The 

 first is a salmon, marked as a kelt, weighing 19 lb. on 

 March 4th, 1902, recaptured in October of the same year, 

 within half a mile of the same spot, weighing 34 lb. The 

 other is a sea-trout ( .'' S. eriox) caught as a kelt February 8th, 

 1902, weighing 3 lb., recaptured on July 19th following, 

 weighing 6 lb. 



The prolonged enquiry of Lord Elgin's Commission has 

 been brought to a conclusion by an exhaustive Report lately 

 Water- issued. It is to be regretted that no place has been 

 storage, found therein for what must be regarded as the most 

 important and hopeful of all means of regenerating the salmon- 

 fisheries of Scotland and Ireland — namely, water-storage. It 

 may be asked why, holding that view, I did not bring the 

 subject before the Royal Commission in my evidence. The 

 reply is that I could have offered no more than a view. There 

 were then no trustworthy data in my possession. Since then, 

 we have experienced the extraordinary summer drought of 

 1 90 1, and that season happened to be the first in which the 

 storage-works constructed by the lessees of the Duke of Suther- 

 land's Helmsdale fishings came into operation. A dam was 

 erected at the foot of Badanloch, a large sheet of water on the 

 head-waters of the Helmsdale, whereby the level of the lake was 

 raised several feet. When the drought set in at the beginning 

 of June, the sluices were opened, with the result that the river 

 ran in full order for many weeks. During the whole of that 

 time, fish were able to run freely from the sea, and excellent 

 angling was obtained ; whereas, but for the stored water, the 

 fish must have been stopped in the tideway, and angling must 

 have been at a standstill. 



