NOTE 59 



Note to Chapter III 



Even now, after inquiries, commissions, 'and treatises too numer- 

 ous to be set out in catalogue order, it may be said, as Blakey 

 writes in this chapter, that the natural history of the salmon 

 is stUl wrapped in considerable mystery, certainly as to its 

 migratory habits, and the cause of epidemic diseases, which latter 

 were little known when this work was-written. It has never been 

 yet discovered how salmon employ themselves in salt water, and 

 how far they venture from land during the months when they 

 are absent from the rivers. Experienced men, who have been 

 observing the movements of, and catching salmon all their lives, 

 to this day halt between two opinions as to whether salmon do or 

 do not feed in fresh water. In other matters once disputed, the 

 knowledge gained during recent years is sufficiently definite. 



The reader should, however, in all frankness be warned that 

 Blakey's natural history of the salmon is not up to date, and 

 must be received with some reticence. It may be that in a very 

 few rivers salmon spawn in the early autumn, but it is wrong 

 to state that the spawning-time is generally in the months of 

 September and October. There are exceptions, as we know, to 

 all rules, but the rule is that salmon spawn in November and 

 December. The assertion that salmon ascend the rivers at the 

 rate of twenty-five miles an hour, even in water where they 

 encounter no obstacles, is most extravagant. This used to be 

 the assumption, but two or three miles an hour would be nearer 

 the fact. A reference will be found (seep. 48) to the "gill, or 

 male fish." If the word "gill" is rendered as Blakey intended 

 it, it is an example of an obsolete term, nor have I ever known 

 the expression used in any work treating of the natural history 

 of the salmon. I offer the suggestion, therefore, that it is a mis- 

 spelling, and should read "gib"; for once upon a time, and 

 perhaps even now, on the Borders, a milter, or spawning male 

 fish, was known as a summer-cock or "gib-fish." Otherwise, the 

 general description of the operation of spawning is correct. In 

 dealing with the controversy (which was a very hot one forty or 

 fifty years ago) as to the young of salmon, it must be remembered 

 that Blakey worked upon assumptions that were freely accepted, 

 but which have meanwhile been put aside. 



_ The accepted history of the early life of a salmon is this : Some 

 ninety to a hundred and fourteen days after the eggs have been 

 sown on the redds and covered with gravel by the parent fish, 

 the fry hatch out, quickly developing into active little fish with 

 horizontal bars on either side. In this stage they are salmon 

 parr. They remain in the fresh water for periods varying from 

 fifteen to eighteen months ; then they put on a silvery dress, and 

 led by inherited instinct drop, tail first, down the rivers to the 

 salt sea. In this migratory stage they are smolts, but are in 

 different districts called smelts and a variety of other names, 



