172 THE SEA-TROUT 



eroded at spawning time. We have here, first, the known fact 

 of the fish spawning in 19 14, which fact is represented by the frayed 

 edge of the scale, and second, the known fact of spawning having taken 

 place in 1913, represented on the scale by the dark band of broken 

 lines occurring first within the margin of the scale. Beyond that 

 nothing in directly known, but, tracing the life-history of the fish, Mr. 

 Hutton recognises three years (1909, 19 10 and 191 1) spent in fresh 

 water; descent as smolt early in 1912, the winter of 1912-1913 spent 

 in the sea without spawning, then the first known spawning in the 

 autumn of 1913, and the second known spawning in autumn 1914, when 

 the fish was caught, fn this case the evidence is, we may say, indirect 

 that the fish did not spawn in its first year of sea-life, but direct that it 

 did spawn in the following two consecutive years. 



2. In Fig. 56, I give a reproduction of a scale of the sea-trout, also 

 a male, which was marked No. 8346 B in one of the Luss burns, in 

 November 1913, and recaptured in November 1914, when the fish was 

 again spawning. This scale also shows great erosion but the history 

 of the fish is fairly clear. It is of the same age as the preceding fish 

 but its record is different. This fish spent three years (1909, 1910 and 

 191 1) in fresh water; descended as a smolt early in 1912, and, returning 

 the same year, as the scale indicates, it spawned as a whitling. There- 

 after it spawned again, as we know, in 1913, and a third time, as we 

 also know, in 1914. The evidence here, partly direct and partly 

 indirect, shows three consecutive years' spawning. 



3. In Fig. 57 is shown a scale of the fish, also a male, which was 

 marked No. 8347 B when spawning in the Smiddy Burn, Luss, in 

 November 19 13, and recaptured when spawning again in November 

 19 1 4. The earlier stages of growth, as indicated on this scale, are not 

 beyond question plain, but the indications of spawning are, I think, 

 undoubted. My supposition is that the fish spent three years (igo6, 

 1907 and 1908) in fresh water and descended as a smolt in spring 1909. 



