NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SALMONIDZ 133 
near the tail of the pool. Crawling to the bank’s edge, and 
cautiously putting our heads over, we could see everything 
that went on below. In the front rank there were five large 
fish only, one apparently of about 30 lbs., the others running 
perhaps from 20 lbs, to 25 lbs. In the second rank were fifteen 
ranging from 15 lbs. to 20 lbs. ; in the third twenty-three from 
to lbs. to 15 lbs., andin the rear rank the Grilse, some thirty- 
two in number. All the fish were motionless except for the 
slight action of the tail fin necessary to keep them up to the 
stream. We then sent the keeper round to stir them gently by 
throwing a stone in behind the Grilse, which caused the whole 
body to move up into deep water ; but after waiting about an 
hour we saw them begin to return to their former quarters, 
where by degrees they took up their original formation in per- 
fectly “dressed” ranks, and without a fish missing. 
“When the water was barely high enough for fishing, I could 
still command a sight of the bottom of the pool, although not 
a perfectly clear one. As the fly passed over him, a salmon 
-before rising invariably turned on his side... .’ 
To return to the subject of salmon migration. Allowing for 
the exceptions previously pointed out, the order in which fish 
ascend rivers is generally somewhat as follows: The strong, 
early runners come first. ‘These are succeeded by the grilse, 
and by the small ‘spring salmon’ which have probably never 
ascended at all as grilse, but have remained in the sea since 
the smolt state—a period of from eight to ten months, as 
noticed in ‘ Proved Facts,’ No. 10. The tails of these spring 
salmon are not so forked as those of grilse. A few of them 
generally appear with the early-running fish. 
As the season advances, the larger fish and those heavy 
with spawn begin to work their way upwards from the mouths 
of the rivers and estuaries towards the higher reaches ; and 
such fish continue ascending from the sea until the close of 
the autumn, or, if the river be an ‘early’ one, of the summer. 
Even as late as November and December, and the January 
