The Natural History of the Salmon. 77 



This theory, I think, may be strengthened by the 

 fact that the fat upon the pyloric appendages of 

 most of the fresh-run British fish which I have 

 examined is not nearly so abundant as in the fresh 

 fish later on in the season ; these very fish, if there 

 had been no floods in the spring, would probably 

 have remained in the sea, and would have appeared 

 in the river either in the first floods in July or 

 August, or if there were no floods in these months 

 they would have come up in November and 

 December. The large fish which, as experience 

 shows, are generally the latest to come into the 

 river, and which for the most part spawn in the 

 lower portions of the river these fresh-run fish 

 which form the ( secondary migration ' are certainly 

 not, as some suppose, barren fish ; they will, I believe, 

 spawn the following winter. Thus, a fish ascending 

 the river in the month of February, 1869, will, if 

 not caught, deposit her eggs about Christmas, 1869, 

 or even earlier. These fish do not, as a rule, come 

 in large numbers, and they are caught here and 

 there singly. Both to the angler and the owners of 

 commercial fisheries they are of great importance, 

 to the one as affording excellent sport, and to the 

 other as fetching large prices in the market. It 

 becomes, therefore, a problem of the greatest im- 

 portance, severely taxing the resources of science 

 to multiply their number." 



