of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



71 



ences to autumn smolts have appeared in The Field and Land and 

 Water ; and in Major Traherne's Habits of the Salmon, a short chapter 

 is devoted to the subject, in which very definite reference is made to the 

 catching of smolts in December in the river Galway. There are two 

 reasons why, if migrations regularly occur in autumn and winter, the 

 movements of the little fish are likely to have been overlooked. The 

 smolts do not seem to have the habit of gently rising and breaking the 

 surface of the water as in spring, or are never in sufficient numbers to 

 make such rising noticeable ; and also the occurrence of the close 

 season results in fewer observers being by the river banks, and in the 

 absence of all tests likely to demonstrate that smolts are in the water. 

 In the reports prepared from year to year by Mr. Willis Bund, as 

 chairman of the Severn Board of Conservators, and which have 

 occasionally been sent to me by the kindness of the author, it is 

 noticeable that the occurrence of an autumn run of smolts has come to 

 be regarded as an established fact. In the report upon the season 1904, 

 for instance, I notice that in referring to the effects of the Liverpool 

 Waterworks it is suggested that the cutting off of the spring freshets 

 has prevented to some extent the descent of the spring migration of 

 smolts and has caused an increase in " the autumn migration of smolts." 

 That there is, as a matter of fact, a great increase in the number of 

 smolts descending in the autumn is definitely stated, and in a letter 

 received by me from Mr. Willis Bund the catching of these fish in the 

 eel traps is described. Evidence was given before the Irish Inland 

 Fisheries Commission to show that, at any rate in certain rivers, smolts 

 are found descending at seasons other than spring, and Mr. Holt, in a 

 letter to me on the subject from Dublin, says : — " I have had a good 

 u many sent to me from time to time, and an autumn migration seems 

 " to occur regularly. While there is no doubt that the fish are moving 

 " down and, from the position of some captures, are going into brackish 

 " water, I do not remember to have ever seen one quite so silvery or so 

 " large as some of the spring smolts." 



From Scotland, as has been said, evidence on this subject is much 

 more deficient, and it has been a point of some interest therefore to 

 determine whether or not these autumn and winter migrations occur 

 with us. Through the kindness of the Tay Fisheries Co., and the 

 courtesy of the Tay District Board, a small-meshed net has been fished 

 by the employees of the Company on six occasions during the last 

 close time and present spring. Fishing was conducted on 18th Sep- 

 tember, 3rd November, 7th December, 10th January, 13th February, 

 and 27th March, on each occasion at or in the neighbourhood of Kin- 

 fauns, in the upper estuary of the Tay, past experience having shown 

 us that descending smolts congregate here previous to their more rapid 

 passage to the sea. {Twenty-third Annual Report, Part II., p. 82.) 



The results are as follows :— 



18th September 1905. Eleven shots with the net were taken as 

 follow : — 



3 at :i Inchyret "—blank. 

 2 at " Lower Mary " produced — 

 1 Salmon Parr. 



1 Yellow Fin or Sea-trout Smolt. 

 1 Brown Trout. 

 3 Whitling (clean). 



2 at " Flookie "— 

 3 Salmon Parr. 

 5 Yellow Fins. 



