OUR INLAND FISHERIES. 25 



as high as 121bs. in weight.' After its next migra- 

 tion to the sea as a grilse kelt, it having spawned 

 in the interim, it returns to the river a full-grown 

 and complete salmon of from 71bs. or 81bs. to 161bs. 

 or 171hs. in weight, each year and each migration to 

 the sea increasing its weight considerably ; but after 

 the first year or two it is supposed that its weight 

 increases less rapidly ; but on this point little as 

 yet has been clearly ascertained. Having now 

 traced its progress from the egg to the salmon, we 

 must return to the egg. 



It must be manifest, when the thousands of eggs 

 which the roe of one female contains are con- 

 sidered," that the produce of a very few pairs of 

 salmon would be sufficient to stock a river," and 



1 I think it poBBible, as there ia an irregularity in the period of 

 the smolts going to the eea, that there may be a like irregularity as 

 to their return, and that these large grilse may have stayed over the 

 twelvemonth in the salt water. — F. F. 



Since the above note was written, this supposition has been dis- 

 tinctly confirmed in the case of the Doohullah fishery ; the whole of 

 the smolts there remained fifteen or sixteen months in the sea before 

 re-appearing as grilse. — ^F. F. 1864. (See Doohullah, in Appendix.) 



• The salmon produces 1000 eggs for every pound of its own 

 weight; thus, a 101b. salmon produces 10,000 eggs. I have tested 

 this calculation on several occasions, and usuEilly found it tolerably 

 accurate. 



' The yearly yield of the largest producing river in the Kingdom 

 is computed at about the produce of one female fi»h of from ISlbs. 

 to 201bs. in weight. The produce of all the rest is lost or wasted. 



