148 THE HABITS OF THE SALMON. 



them to remain in their stands in the shallower parts 

 of a river, as they also do in the lower spawning 

 grounds when there is not enough water to enable 

 them to reach their spawning grounds higher up the 

 river. Salmon die in considerable numbers of some 

 disease in the upper reaches of the Aberdeenshire 

 Dee, during the summer months, which may be due 

 to the overcrowding of the fish in the deep holes 

 when the water is low. I myself saw numbers of 

 fish dead and dying when fishing the Dee between 

 Balmoral and Ballater on one occasion, during the 

 month of June, and my attendant informed me that 

 it was almost a yearly occurrence ; but, inasmuch as 

 we do not hear that saprolegnia has ever broken out 

 in the Aberdeenshire Dee, we may safely assume 

 that these fish were affected with some other disease. 

 Again, salmon are often so overcrowded in the 

 Galway river, Ireland, in that part immediately below 

 the regulating weir, that in many places the bed of 

 the river is literally black with them, or as the Irish 

 say, paved with them. They often remain in the 



