44 Anniversary Address. 



smolts in their stomachs, and when you consider that all these 

 *Pod]ers' or ' Saiths' were taken within a very limited space, 

 and in a very short time, you may imagine how vast must be 

 the nnmbers, and what an immense destruction of the fry 

 must be going on all along the shore, and in the open sea. 

 The ' Podlers ' and the ' Sea Gulls ' are certainly the greatest 

 destroyers of the fry that come most under observation, but 

 no doubt Cod fish, as well as other fishes, will also have a 

 fair share of them. 



" There are, however, one or two points as regards the salmon 

 itself, which I should like to see cleared up. We all believe 

 the salmon to be grilse of the previous year, after it has 

 spawned and become clean again. At the close of the fishing 

 season in October, salmon will average about 16 lbs. weight, 

 and grilses from 7 to 8 Hbs. All of them that are caught are 

 more or less full of spawn, and approaching to a mature state, 

 although some are much more advanced than others. We 

 know that both salmon and grilses at that time proceed to the 

 higher parts of the river for the purpose of depositing their 

 spawn and in the months of February, March, April and May 

 following, we find salmon that have spawned, as well as grilses, 

 descending the river again towards the sea, for the purpose, 

 as we presume, of being renovated in their condition. During 

 the same time we occasionally find salmon that have spawned, 

 and Bagot salmon likewise (that is female salmon which are 

 just ready to spawn) coming into the river from the sea. 

 While all this is going forward there is, from the very com- 

 mencement of the season in February (and when the season 

 commenced so early as the 10th of January it was just the 

 same) a regular supply of clean salmon coming daily into the 

 river from the sea, averaging about a pound more in weight 

 than the grilses were at the close of the previous season, but 

 very few old salmon of 16 lbs. weight, in a clean state., are 

 ever caught among them. It seems almost certain that these 

 fish cannot have had time to be in the river to spawn as grilses, 

 and to have returned again to the sea and become salmon. 

 The question then arises, where do they come from ? If they 

 have not spawned during the winter, then at the close of the 



