The Natural History of the Salmon. 79 



of them go down to the sea with the floods in Decem- 

 ber and January. Now is it not probably instinctive 

 that the fish should again ascend into fresh water as 

 soon as their renovated powers will permit them, and 

 hence their early departure from the sea, and hence 

 the cause of fish running up during the spring and 

 summer months to spawning time, dependent upon 

 the time they left the fresh water as kelts. There 

 may be occasionally barren fish, but they must be 

 rare, as it is contrary to the law of nature, and so 

 is the theory of spawning only alternate years. 



Mr. Aitken, the head fisherman of the Spean and 

 Lochy a most intelligent and careful observer, 

 who knows the habits of Salmon as well as anybody 

 sent me the following answers to my questions : 



" Salmon only begin to run up the Lochy in March, 

 but few in number. In April and May they come 

 up very freely. The greater portion of the early 

 fish are females. These spring fish remain in the 

 river all the season and are early spawners, reaching 

 the spawning grounds before the later fish, and 

 there is no doubt some of them go down to the sea 

 much earlier than is supposed. 



" The spring fish in the Lochy are of all sizes, from 

 ten to forty or fifty pounds. The largest grilse 

 caught in the Spean are generally from 7 Ibs. to 7^1bs. 

 The smallest salmon rarely below seven pounds, but 

 one has been killed as small as five pounds. 



