36 THE LIFE OF THE SALMON 
bottom. Isolated cases have occurred of salmon 
being captured on cod lines off Scotland, and of steam 
trawlers capturing salmon ten to forty miles from 
land,* and I have heard of the capture of a salmon 
in the Pacific, some 400 miles off the American coast. 
This was, of course, not salmo salar, but none the 
less the occurrence is interesting, as showing that 
salmonids do go far from land. Yet no marked 
salmon has been caught after crossing the North Sea 
or even St. George’s Channel. One or two Nor- 
wegian marked fish did, I understand, turn up in 
England, but on investigation it was found that 
they had come across the North Sea in a steamer, 
just as one or two Scottish marked fish which were 
discovered in a fish shop in Cornwall went from 
Aberdeen by rail. In pursuit of their natural food, 
however, both grilse and salmon clearly leave the 
coast, and the fact above referred to that grilse 
make their appearance in the coast nets somewhat 
abruptly, and that a good ‘“‘ head of salmon” some- 
times occurs simultaneously with this run of grilse, 
leads to the inference that they have forsaken the 
feeding grounds when they draw in to the land and 
move along the coast. On the east and south coasts 
of Skye and the east side of the island of Raasay the 
bag nets catch such a large proportion of grilse that 
the fishery may be spoken of as a grilse fishery. 
On this account the nets are not put in the water 
at the commencement of the season, but only 
brought up to full strength before the main runs of 
* Twenty-fourth Annual Report, Fishery Board for Scotland, 
Part Il. p. 76. 
