176 ■ Transactions. — Miscellayieous. 



beauty of colouring, symmetry of form, and every good point, the Tay salmon 

 I regard as unsurpassed — lie is the king of fishes ! The head is well 

 formed, sharp and of moderate size, the lower jaw in the males having a 

 prominent hook ; the body full and robust, with arched back and full belly, 

 all covered with a mass of burnished silvery scales, a few black a;-shaped 

 spots above the lateral line mostly, and the tail broad and square, or 

 slightly emarginate. In weight, too, they excel, having been taken as 

 heavy as 60 and 70 lbs. — while it is a common event to kill 30 lb. salmon 

 in Loch Tay with rod and spinning lures in February or March. I have 

 seen Irish salmon in the London market as high as 56 lbs. in weight, but 

 they were not equal in appearance to the Tay fish, being dull in colour and 

 rather coarse looking. 



The salmon of the other Scotch rivers enumerated, I would describe 

 generally as rounder in the head and longer relatively in the body than 

 those of the Tay. Yet none differ so much from the latter in external 

 appearance as the salmon of the Awe and Orchy rivers. "When fishing 

 these streams in August or September, I have found the salmon dark in 

 colour and possessing a most extraordinary and characteristic head. The 

 skull or cranium is low, the head elongated, and the snout so much pro- 

 duced as to resemble very much that of a pig ! An Awe salmon could be 

 identified anywhere by its head. 



The weight of salmon {S. salar), other things being equal, appears to 

 have some relation to the latitude and the size of the rivers which it 

 frequents. Thus, for example, the Forth and Tay salmon attain a greater 

 average and maximum weight than those caught in the small rivers of the 

 Hebrides, which run about 7 lbs, and do not exceed 12 lbs. It would seem 

 as if the higher the latitude and smaller the rivers, the smaller the 

 fish. 



A good deal of imagination has been indulged in trying to find a function 

 for the hook on the lower jaw of the male fish. It was believed at one time 

 to be used in the excavation of the " ridd" in which the female deposits her 

 spawn. But such is not the case, at all events there is no case on record of 

 the male having been seen so occupied ; for many observers have watched 

 the female, and state how they have seen her roll on to her side and lash 

 the water with her tail, and so gradually form the hollow or " ridd " in the 

 gravel, wherein she forthwith deposited her ova. Others again fancied that 

 the hook was the weapon provided by nature for the males to do their fight- 

 ing with rival males during the spawning season. I scarcely think this can 

 be correct either ; for the teeth being really the weapons of offence and 

 defence, it follows that the hook, which is at the snout, must in biting 

 hinder the teeth from doing so much injury as otherwise they would inflict. 



