106 THE LIFE OF THE SALMON 
If salmon live much longer than eight years they 
apparently need not be looked for in the fresh’ water 
spawning places of their species, and the fact that 
the majority of the very large salmon captured are 
males would seem to indicate that in all probability 
the male, as in other animals, remains fertile longer 
than the female. So far as I know, the record weight 
for a Scottish salmon is 84 1b., but the fish was taken 
in the estuary of the Tay, though both in the Dee 
and in the Tay fish of over 70 lb. have been taken 
in fresh water. 
From the study of the scales alone do we gain 
this information as to the infrequency of spawning, 
and the consequent benefit to our stock of salmon in 
preserving most religiously the breeding fish which 
enter our rivers. From the study of the scales also 
it is possible to note early running fish. Mr. Johnston 
has, for instance, found the kelts of spring fish only 
a short distance above the tide, as early in the 
spawning season as November. Mr. Berrington, 
formerly Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trade, 
has specially noted in his official reports that when 
a river is becoming over-fished the first runs of fish 
to disappear are the spring runs. Now the spring 
fish are not only of great value in any river, because 
they are fish in beautiful condition, which afford the 
best sport to the rod, and are the best river-caught 
fish for the table, but also because they are the fish 
which ascend to the highest tributaries of our large 
rivers, and by so doing deposit their eggs in the 
purest waters at the commencement of the spawning 
season before frosts and spring floods can impair the 
