40 



Appendices to Twenty seventh Annual Report 



Lines U and X — Two Tay fish, one recaught at Fife Ness, the other in Largo 

 Bay, Firth of Forth. 



Line Y — A clean fish marked in December, 1907, in the Beauly, miles up 

 river. Recaptured at Dochfour, River Ness, in three months, 

 a clean fish of rather less weight. This is the only example 

 of a fish marked when clean changing its river. 



Line Z — A kelt marked in the Spean at Roy mouth. 



Recaptured at Minard, Loch Feochan. 



There are one or two special cases which I may now refer to. I have 

 included in the complete list at the commencement of this paper No. 

 8669a as having been recovered on 11th August 1908. The fish was 

 marked in the Tay at Del vine on 26 th Feb. 1905, a 7 lb. kelt, measuring 

 33 inches. There is no absolute proof that this fish was actually 

 recovered, but the presumption is very strong. The mark itself was 

 found by one of a crew of Tay fishermen on the " hailing ground " of 

 Pyeroad Fishing Station. On the same day a fish was noticed in the ice- 

 house of the Tay Fisheries Co., Perth — to which all fish from Pyeroad 

 Station are sent — from the dorsal fin of which a mark had quite evidently 

 been recently torn. The men in the ice-house have recovered many 

 marks and examine all fish carefully. So convinced were they that the 

 mark had quite recently come out that the fish-box in which this and 

 other fish hsd arrived was diligently searched for the missing mark. The 

 fish weighed 29 lbs. 



There, is another recapture concerning which some ambiguity exists. 

 It is not referred to in the list. On 8th August Messrs. Joseph 

 Johnston & Sons, Montrose, wrote me that at Carnoustie on 6th August 

 a marked salmon had been taken in one of their bag-nets. I was 

 informed that the men " tied a piece of string to the tail when sending 

 " their salmon here, but although the fish was examined here, the wire 

 "could not be seen, and we could not find any reason for the string being 

 " tied to the tail ; the wire must have dropped out in the box." The fish 

 weighed 18 lb. This seemed to me a capture of special interest. The 

 reference to the wire suggested that the fish had been one of the smolts 

 marked by wire in the dorsal fin in 1905 in the Tay. Further enquiries 

 elicited the information from Edwin Duncan, Messrs. Johnston's foreman 

 at Carnoustie, that the fish " was marked by a small piece of wire drawn into 

 "the dorsal fin." This exactly harmonised with the idea that the fish had 

 been marked as a smolt. A further note from Duncan, when I still 

 pressed for particulars, completely dispelled this view, however. He wrote 

 to Messrs. Johnston as follows : — " All the information I can give is that 

 " the wire had a small label attached to it ; the men could see no mark on 

 "it. It was attached to the small fin on the back nearest the tail." The 

 chances are, therefore, the fish had been marked as a kelt at Edradynate, 

 in the Upper Tay, where Mr. H. W. Johnston has been attaching the 

 ordinary marks to the adipose fin with good results. 



When referring to the smolt marking of 1905, I may state that while 

 the return of grilse, small spring fish, and summer fish of 1906 have been 

 reported, later recaptures made by the Tay Fisheries Company in 1907 

 and 1 908, which I am aware have been made and concerning which I have 

 heard a good deal, have not been communicated to me by Mr. Malloch, 

 the managing director. After repeated enquiries I am informed the reason 

 is connected with the commercial interests of the Company. I extremely 

 regret that for the present I cannot communicate these interesting 

 recaptures. I trust that on a later occasion Mr. Malloch will yet furnish 

 me with the authenticated information. 



It is remarkable that from the Naver four consecutive numbers should 

 have been recaptured in the nets at the mouth of the river, and that the 



