The Salmon 



25 



The total weia;ht of the fortv fish was 266f:'' lbs. I think these 

 results clearly prove that smolts going down in April and May do not 

 return as grilse until the following year. It has been said that if they 

 do return sooner they must be very small ; but I do not believe 

 they return the same year. Even if one were caught, say i lb. in 

 weight, it would be impossible to tell, even by the scales, whether it 

 had been to the sea or not. We have on many occasions seen and 

 have caught scores of smolts which have been confined in a loch 

 three, six, and twelve months up to three years after they had turned 

 smolts. These weighed from 6 oz. to 2 lbs. and any of them 

 escaping might easily have been mistaken tor young grilse. I will 

 treat more fully of these and give illustrations of them in another 

 chapter. Our marked smolts, so tar as my judgment goes, were all 

 at least two years old in March 1905. In this connection readers 

 might bear in mind that all our captures are from the same marking 

 of 1905. 



The difference in weight will be seen irom these grilse : the first, 

 caught on ist June, was 2 lbs. 15 oz., and the largest, caught on iSth 

 August, was 10 lbs. 8 oz. This great difference in weight seems to 

 indicate that the fish both feed and increase in weight much more 



