GRILSE 39 
will call in question. If the grilse had entered the 
river Dee in any great numbers, the seine nets would 
have found them. With regard further to the ques- 
tion whether or not all the grilse come into our 
rivers, I beg leave, with the recognised privilege of 
a Scotsman, to answer this question by asking 
another, viz., What is a small spring fish? If all 
grilse enter our rivers, how is it possible that small 
spring salmon of 4, 6, or 9 lb. weight can be found 
in our rivers just when grilse have finished spawning 
and are descending again to the sea? These small 
spring fish cannot have spawned at an earlier stage. 
If they had been up rivers on a previous occasion 
they would have been very small grilse, and as kelts 
would have been lighter than any kelts to be found. 
But if I may anticipate a little here, I would say that 
a study of their scales shows that they have not 
spawned. Only two hypotheses are possible— 
(1) That they have previously ascended fresh 
water, but have returned to the sea without 
spawning. 
(2) That they have never been into fresh water 
since they left it as smolts, but have passed their 
grilse stage in the sea. 
With regard to the first, I would say that while 
it is certainly true that some fish ascend rivers and 
again drop back, there is no evidence to show that in 
so dropping back any fish enter the sea for a renewed 
period of feeding, but only through force of floods, 
intense cold, injury or disease, or some more or less 
temporary cause. Further, we have for several 
winters carried on. systematic netting operations for 
