THE HABITS OF THE SALMON. 9 



but the spring take was comparatively insignificant 

 both for nets and rods.^ But of late years the 

 Duke of Sutherland (the proprietor) has prohibited 

 the nets from being worked until the ist of 

 May, and the result is, that the spring fish 

 have vastly increased in numbers. During the seven 

 years I fished the Helmsdale prior to the Duke's 

 intervention, the average take was not over 46 fish 

 per rod during the spring months ; the greatest 

 number caught by myself in any one spring being 

 82, whilst in another spring I got no more than 16. 

 Now, I am informed that the average number per 

 rod killed during spring for the last five years has 

 been no less than 125, and that as many as 200 

 have been killed in the spring by one fisherman. 

 A brief consideration of these facts, even without 



'^ The netting was not extensive, and, I was told, barely paid 

 expenses, a statement I had special facilities for testing by per- 

 sonal observation of the daily returns of fish netted. I was con- 

 vinced that the average spring netting would not exceed 200 fish, 

 but I have just received the most trustworthy local opinion that 

 the average could not have reached that figure for the years in 

 question. 



