SALMON— KELTS AND THEIR PRESERVATION. 97 



observers are of opinion that tiey never come back, consequently as mending kelts 

 they have been consuming food, but in return for which they will not subse- 

 quently benefit the river.* 



Certainly, were all the salmon kelts destroyed the probabilities are that the 

 breed in the river might decrease in sizef (see p. 27), but that the destruction of 

 a number will have this effect, is not so sure, thus during the winter season 

 of 1881-82 the salmon disease seriously affected the Tay and its tributaries, killing 

 vast numbers of kelts, and by some people a greatly diminished catch was 

 prognosticated for the season of 1882-83. But the spring and summer fishing was 

 fairly favourable,! while in August there was a large increase both in grilse and 

 salmon : the effects of the mortality seemed to show itself in the decreased weight 

 of the individual salmon and the paucity of exceptionally heavy fish, none 

 attaining 401b. until the commencement of June. This would go towards 

 favouring the contention that kelts when mended do return to the river, but that 

 a great destruction of them does not necessarily involve a greatly diminished take 

 of salmon the ensuing year. 



possibly ulceration of the snout {see -p. 57). Buist observed, "A few years ago a fine male of 

 20 lb. weight was used for spawning purposes at Stormontfields. A mark was put on him by 

 means of a copper wire and two years afterwards he was got when nearly 30 lb. weight on the 

 same ford, and at the same season : and after doing duty again was returned to the river hale 

 and strong, but he was not traced afterwards." Also instances have been adduced of marked 

 kelts having returned to the same river (see p. 95). A correspondent, "Blaokwater side," writing in 

 Land and Water, May 28th, 1881, remarked " that in the Blaokwater we have a class of fish locally 

 termed ' retrievers ' or ' recruits.' These fish have the remains of the markings generally of the 

 male kelts and the hook on the under jaw still developed. They are usually in company with 

 a good run of fresh fish, as if, having been down to the sea, they met a number of old friends 

 rushing up, and turned back with them. Some of them have been so short a time in salt water 

 that the remains of the maggots are found in their gills. The gray or ' harvest fish ' of this 

 part of the country are also beyond a doubt the kelts which went down early and recovered them- 

 selves suflSoiently to run up in the autumn and spawn during the following winter." 



* " I want to ask your correspondents," observed a writer in Land and Water (November 18th, 

 1881), writing of the Tweed, " who swear salmon kelts return, and so make the big autumn fish, 

 how is it that for the last three winters they have died by thousands, and yet we have more fish 

 of all sorts, and more big ones than we have had in the river for years, and there are hundreds, 

 perhaps thousands, stiU ascending the fords every day ? It was calculated that in the winter of 

 1879-80, 50,000 kelts were buried or washed out to sea ; the same thing happened last winter 

 when the disease was worse than ever, and equally as many died (in fact I stated at the time that 

 it was worse last spring than was ever known), and thousands were washed out to sea, as we had 

 two very big floods ; one the biggest since the year 1826, and in spite of all this we have more 

 fish than ever." Another correspondent remarked of these kelts : " They lie helpless in the river 

 in many instances, and though aUve, can be hooked out by a stick. No doubt when our grand- 

 fathers lived on acorns, all these fish were taken out. They are diseased, and ought to be killed, 

 as diseased birds and animals are or ought to be killed. It is all very well to talk of magnificent 

 30 lb. or 40 lb. fish if kelts are preserved, but far better have two fish of 15 lb. than one fish 

 of 301b. When a salmon is over 201b. he begins to get coarse, and a 401b. fish is real 'old 

 buU.' No man who has the pick of a hundred fish would select one over 18 lb. for his own 

 eating." In another communication to Land and Water, August 23rd, 1883, it was observed, 

 " Kelts were killed and sold previous to the Act of 1857, and no one was ever one bit the worse, 

 and yet they are now supposed to be unwholesome. Surely they are ten times better than a fish 

 covered with Saprolegnia ferax — in one case the fish are only lean, in the other simply rotten. A 

 kelt is not unwholesome ; it is foul and unclean, and it is by law protected in the hope that it wiU 

 return from the sea a clean fish. Now they are protected every way for no purpose whatever 

 except to please a few who think they return, and the whole time they are in the river they are 

 destroying smolts and spreading disease." 



t Arguments condemning the slaughter of kelts have been adduced, thus one well-known 

 author protested against advocating the indiscriminate destruction of salmon-kelts, observing, "If 

 we were to destroy all kelts in a river, where are the large fish to come from ? The natural con- 

 sequence of such a proceeding would be that only grilse would be left, and these fish would 

 be on their second run from the sea and would not average probably 8 lb., whereas it takes years 

 to produce the noble 20 lb. and 30 lb. which have since their first appearance as grilse repro- 

 duced their species yearly." 



X H.M. Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, Professor Huxley, in July, 1883, reported, " Another 

 very singular fact which has been brought to light by observation, though it certainly sounds 

 paradoxical, is, that even a violent epidemic of disease (Saprolegnia ferax) continued for several years 

 does not diminish the productiveness of a river." Probably the reason is to be found in so many 

 kelts falling victims, and as a consequence the smolts escape, thus it wiU possibly augment the gross 

 weight of the captures, although it may be more or less fatal to the presence of many very large fish 



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