30 OBSERVATIONS ON A SALMON RIVER 



All the grilse and salmon that enter a 

 river are supposed to spawn and those that 

 remain long in fresh water have the edges 

 of their scales broken off. When the kelt- 

 grilse and the kelt-salmon return to the sea 

 and begin to feed, a ring forms around these 

 broken parts and these rings increase in 

 number according to the time the fish re- 

 main in the sea. 



In the Grand Cascapedia River a grilse is 

 seldom seen or taken. This may account for 

 the great average size of the salmon in that 

 river. These fish may pass their grilse term 

 of life in the sea, where, with good food and 

 without the fatigue of spawning, they grow 

 in weight accordingly, and enter the river 

 later on as full-fledged salmon. Few 

 salmon are taken in the Grand Cascapedia 

 under 20 pounds in weight, and it was there 

 that Dr. S. Weir Mitchell took in 1896 40 

 salmon that averaged 28 pounds. 



In order to determine the time the salmon 

 remain in the sea it is necessary to count the 

 rings from the broken or uneven lines out- 



