38 



Appendices to Twenty-seventh Annual Report 



changed to 2797, and the fish subsequently allowed to go. Again, it would 

 appear, the fish adopted the long-migration habit. My reason for 

 thinking so is that the examination of the scales shows this, and that 

 other Helmsdale marking records show in almost all cases moderate growth 

 and sometimes quite insignificant growth and increase in weight, 

 especially in cases where fish have been held up in ponds, as this fish was. 

 Compare, for instance, these two typical Helmsdale records : — 



821 

 1395 



9 1b. : 30 inches : Kelt : F. : 9th November, 1904. 



16 lb. : 331 i nc hes : Clean : F. : 16th May, 1906. 



7 lb. : 30" inches : Kelt : F. : 3rd March, 1905. 



22 lb. : 36 inches : Clean : F. : 26th June, 1906. 



After, then, this second period of release in the sea, the fish now bearing 

 Mark No. 2797 was again recaptured in the Helmsdale when the men 

 were netting at the same place for hatching purposes, on 29th September, 

 1908, i.e., exactly two years since it was last handled, and three years and 

 a half since the fish was first marked. The fish was now marked 4679 

 and again released. At this second recapture this female fish was again 

 described as in unspawned condition. It weighed 19| lb., and measured 

 37| inches. If, after spawning the second time, the fish lost 4 lb. in 

 weight, as is perhaps approximately correct, we have a nett increase of 

 weight in 3 1 years, allowing for one intervening spawing period, of 9| lb. 

 This is not a great increase. We have had a Tay kelt of 6 lb. recaptured 

 as a clean fish of 19 lb. in fourteen months. Locality exercises a consider- 

 able influence on the conditions, however, as has previously been pointed 

 out. Helmsdale, Brora, and Deveron fish do not show very rapid increase. 

 A Helmsdale fish recently caught in the Spey district— in a fixed net near 

 Buckie — is a striking example. The record is : — 



4683 



6 lb. : 28| inches : Kelt : F. : 14th Nov., 1908. Helmsdale, 



Kinbrace. 



5 1 lb. : — — : Clean : F : 24th March, 1909. Buckpool net, 



Spey district. 



The fish may have taken some little time to descend to the sea from Kin- 

 brace after having been marked, and would certainly lose weight during 

 that time. Further enquiries as to its condition when recaptured elicited 

 the reply that the fish " was in rather poor condition, but quite clean." 



The scales of this fish show, counting back from the period of its last 

 capture, that it was hatched out in the spring of 1900, went into the sea 

 in 1902 when a smolt, and made its first return to fresh water as a summer 

 fish in 1904, when 4-J yeais old. In other words, it is an example of the 

 fish which pass through their grilse stage in the sea. In the autumn of 

 1904 it spawned, and, as we know, was first marked when caught on the 

 rod as a kelt in February, 1905. It was then 5| years old. After a visit 

 to the sea, where it remained all summer, winter, and the following spring, 

 it again entered the river in the summer of 1906, when 6^ years old. It 

 was netted in September and kept in a pond till November, when it was, 

 after being stripped, re-marked and again liberated. When it dropped 

 back into the sea as a kelt in the spring of 1907 it was 7 J years old. 

 Again it adopted the long period of migration, but it re-entered the river 

 very early in 1908, and, so far as we know, remained all season there. In 

 the autumn it was again caught and stripped, re-marked, and returned to 

 the river. It was then 8| years old, and may be regarded as a fish which 

 has completed its reproductive function. I do not expect to see it again, 

 but it has yielded us some interesting information in the course of its life, 

 and has reproduced its species on two occasions. 



