CHAPTER III 
RESULTS OF SALMON MARKING 
Early marking operations—Modern method of marking— 
Divided migration—Scottish and Irish records showing short 
and long periods in the sea—Increase of weight in kelts 
recaptured as clean fish—Significance of divided migration in 
regulating fisheries—Salmon returning to their own river— 
Recaptures in other rivers—Recaptures on the coast— 
Direction of movements on coast—Kelts recaptured as kelts 
—Spring fish marked and recaptured 
THE immortal Izaak tells us in his ‘Compleat 
Angler” (1653) of observations made on the homing 
instinct of the salmon by tying ribbons or tapes to 
the tails of young fish, and how the fish were found 
to return from the sea to the same part of the same 
river. More recent observers also sought to identify 
fish so as to study their movements, but the methods 
employed were not, as a rule, so harmless as those 
of the lover of the gentle art. Mackenzie of 
Ardross in 1823 attached brass wires to the tails 
of salmon and grilse kelts. The late Duke of 
Atholl used copper wire and a copper label the size 
of a halfpenny in marking Tay fish, and between 
1850 and 1863 obtained interesting recaptures, 
although the copper, pressing tightly upon the 
