32 The Salmon 



The history of these tish, which will be five years old in March, is 

 now quite clear. Out of over a thousand fish which I examined 

 during the last two weeks of February, all, with the exception ot 

 about ten per cent, which had spawned, were of the same age, viz. 

 five years, and their average weight was about 20 lbs. The one 

 caught on 13th February 190S, weighing t,S^ lbs., belongs to the same 

 run and is of the same age, so that up to 15th February 190S we have 

 these spring fish on their first return from the sea, weighing from 13 





Fig. 27. — Mark of iS-i-ll). Salmon .shown, caught iSlh July 1907. Marked as SmoU May 1905. 



to ^Sh lbs. The last-mentioned weight is no doubt exceptional. The 

 wired fish, 35 lbs. in weight, caught at Almond Mouth station on 

 31st March 1908, is the largest marked fish we have got. It 

 had been in the sea within a month of three years, and had not 

 spawned. (See illustration of the fish and of its scale. Figs. 32, 80.) 

 It was therefore of the same age as the others already mentioned, 

 viz. five years. 



Although the marking of these smolts and the capture of so many 

 of them has added much to our knowledge, and cleared up many 

 matters of which little was known, something yet requires to be done 

 in marking fish irom the different runs in order to be able to tell 



