180 APPENDIX. 



either too fat or too thin. But before we can bring ourselves 

 to accept such a theory, we must entirely give up the idea of 

 salmon being a migratory fish, and indeed resign ourselves to 

 the necessity of depriving it of instinct altogether. Yet were 

 the supporters of these specious theories and quibbles deliber- 

 ately to think the matter over, they would find that in bring- 

 ing back the entire produce of a year's spawning, as well of 

 salmon as of grUse, within the period of two months, they 

 would inevitably deprive themselves of a crop of salmon for 

 the ensuing spring fishery. 



M. Then you maintain that, when the/rn/ of sahnon descends 

 to the sea, it does not retiu'n to the rivers in the shape of a 

 grilse, but remains in the sea until it is a salmon, and that the 

 produce of grilse only return as grilses. 



H. I do. Let theorists bring back the grUse two months 

 after they quitted the rivers as smolts, if they will, for the sake 

 of their own theories ; but let them, for their interests, leave the 

 fry of salmon in the sea until they become salmon, and supply 

 their fishery with salmon next spring. To explain to you more 

 clearly what I mean, let us suppose that, at the commencement 

 of the world, when the produce of the first year's spawning 

 returned in summer, two months after they had left the river, 

 whence was the spring fishery of the ensuing year to be sup- 

 plied ? for even admitting that the kelts, or spawned fish, came 

 back in spring — when most of them are stUl in the rivers as 

 kelts — after a brief stay in the sea, they would form but a 

 sorry fishery, as they are well known to be in a half-emaciated 

 state, with jagged gills, and parasites adheriag to them, evi- 

 dently exhibiting every symptom of fish that have recently 

 spawned, without flavour, and devoid of the perfect symmetry 

 which characterises the clean salmon. 



M. It is admitted that salmon are degenerating, and that 

 they will soon become a fish of history, unless the legislature 

 step in to protect them. What measiires would you suggest 

 as best calculated to restore the rivers to what they were in 

 the olden times ? 



H. Individual interests and opinions are so conflicting that 



