12 



The Salmon 



weight. This is their first return from the sea since migrating 

 about three years previously as smolts, and they are therefore five 

 years old. Very few, indeed, have spawned before. There is no 

 difficulty in distinguishing between fish that have spawned before and 

 those that have never spawned. The latter almost always have spots 

 on the body near the gill-covers, and parasites are usually attached to 

 their gills. I have now reached the end of the grilse stage. 



Other smolts going down at the same date — April — as the ones 

 the grilse come from, instead of returning as grilse begin to run about 

 the middle of December, when the grilse have almost ceased. These 

 are clean fish, and will not spawn till November, being thus nearly a 

 year in fresh water before spawning. The first run of these fish in 

 the Tay usually weigh about 6 lbs. each, and the weight continues to 

 increase with every catch up to the middle of June, when a weight of 

 from II to 13 lbs. is attained. By this time the run is completely 

 over. From the results of our marking it will be seen that the earliest 

 of these fish have been in the sea seventeen months from the time 

 they went down as smolts, in April 1905 ; and the last, which were 

 caught on the 14th of June, twenty-three and a half months. A very 

 few may be later. I have paid particular attention to this run of fish 

 for the last nine years, and I find that they disappear at the same time 

 almost to a day every year. Many people hold the opinion that these 

 fish are belated grilse, but I have always differed from them. These 

 fish are similar to the small fish found in the North Esk, the South 

 Esk, the Dee, the Findhorn, the Ness, the Beauly, the Brora, the 

 Helmsdale, the Thurso, and many other rivers. Some years they are 

 more plentiful than others : this year — 1907 — they were very plentiful. 

 They run very fast and push far inland, are very strong, and able to 

 surmount very high tails. Taking freely they afford splendid sport 

 to the angler, while for the table they cannot be surpassed. In May 

 and June few of them remain in the lower reaches. I have known 

 them to run 30 miles in two days. Spawning commences about the 

 middle ot November, and being mostly in the higher reaches and in 

 the smaller rivers, the fish fall back quickly afterwards. Besides what 



