SALMON— EARLY AND LATE BREEDS. 65 



able to prove from a series of experiments, extending over several years, that in the 

 Penobscot the salmon, Salmo salar var., breeds every second year. (See page 79.) 

 As to any constitutional peculiarities in an early or late race, although 

 summarily disposed of by several authors, it does not appear improbable that such 

 may exist. Many excellent observers have held that the descendants of early- 

 ascending fish would similarly give rise to a form having the same peculiarity. 

 And if this early habit is capable of transmission to offspring, it would be sound 

 economy to stock a late river with an early breed, in order to try and convert it 

 from a late into an early one ; while it has been advanced, and with a show of 

 reason, how in the Dart Fishery the obstructions have converted an early 

 breeding river into a late one, and now when these causes are being modified the 

 river is becoming earlier. On the other hand how in districts where the back 

 end of the season has been shortened — for instance, on the Blackwater and the 

 Tay — the spring fishing has been greatly improved. At the same time attention 

 must be drawn to the fact that it has not been proved that it is the early 

 breeders that produce the early ascending fish,* and it has still to be shown 

 whether the parents of these early forms do not deposit their milt and ova at 

 the same time as salmon whose descendants have the late instincts ; while 

 there is a want of evidence respecting the condition of the early-ascending fish as 

 regards their fertility or sterility. 



It is clear some rivers have early ascending fish, while in others they may be 

 late, and all the intermediate grades are seen, as well as several ascents in one 

 stream during the year. While differences in the size and length of their course 

 will occasion variations in the mode of ascent, thus, up the smaller streams these 

 fishes, as a rule, can only migrate late in the season and merely remain a sufficient 

 time to deposit their spawn. 



" a salmon does not breed every year, but once every three years," and whose further remarks I 

 have already quoted. It is asserted in Nature, 1877, page 376, that a gentleman who at different 

 times had marked hundreds of kelts during the months of February, March, and April, while 

 they were descending to the sea, had never seen one returning to spawn in the river that autumn, 

 but he had met with individuals he had marked coming back the next year. He believed that 

 " they frequent the fresh waters from habit, although there is no sign of milt or roe," and that 

 these fish are biennial breeders. On this point one looks in vain through the reports of our 

 Inspectors of Salmon Fisheries for any facts, but in such there is absolutely nothing to the 

 point except bare opinions, and those often crude. 



* The Commissioners for 1861 observed: "Experience has fuUy proved the fact in Ireland, 

 where the enforcement of an earlier closing season has produced within a few years a correspond- 

 ing early supply in certain rivers" (p. xxviii). They also concluded that as to "the alleged 

 difference of season in certain rivers, we think that artificial causes have much more concern 

 in producing such anomaUes, than the laws of nature. ... In order to enable the upper 

 waters to be fully stocked, it is necessary to afford a free run to the early spawning fish, 

 which are naturally impelled to seek the highest parts of the stream to breed in. If, 

 however, in consequence of an undue extension of the fishing season, these fish are cut 

 off in their passage up, it follows that no stock will be left to replenish the river, except 

 those later fish which make their ascent under the protection of the close time. It is in 

 this way that some rivers are artificially made later, and the fact accounted for " (p. xxviii). 

 Professor Huxley seemed to consider that, just as the capture of the early fish in early 

 rivers had not tended in the least degree to make them late, so the preservation of the late fish in 

 the very late rivers had not tended to make them later than they were. "I cannot say," he 

 continued, " that I can discover any good ground for the belief that any kind of human interference 

 is competent to affect the earliness or lateness of a river. Differences in the habits of fish in the 

 same river have been and are still observed where the artificial conditions are constant ;" and he 

 instances weirs, but denies that their presence has altered the inherited instincts of these fish as 

 to their times of ascent. 



Mr. Pike, secretary to the Dart Fishery Board, remarked in Land and Water, March 28th, 

 1885, that the Totnes Weir entirely prevents salmon ascending the river. " For a great many 

 years the river had been netted in close time to pass salmon over, but it is only four seasons ago 

 that this netting was permitted before the rod fishing ended on October 31st. Ever since the 

 salmon were passed up early in September they have been seen spawning high up on Dartmoor 

 as early as the first week in October, and young salmon have been hatched out the first week in 

 January. The result is that early spawned fish have returned again to the sea before Christmas, 

 and a goodly number of large fish from 12 lb. to 20 lb. have been taken in the nets throughout 

 the month of March." This instance, the correctness of which I assume, is one showing that 

 the lateness in spawning in a certain river may be consequent upon the presence of an artificial 



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