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Appendices to Thirty-sixth Annual Report 



carried out on a much larger scale than has yet been attempted with us, and 

 this means the impounding or collecting of a very considerable number of 

 spawners. We could not very well adopt the Pacific Coast method of 

 killing the fish and taking the eggs. Our kelts do not all die. We 

 have had a return of marked kelts afterwards recaptured as clean fish of 

 52 1 per cent. It is of some interest to notice from the latest Canadian 

 Report the number of fish which are necessary to stock Dominion hatcheries. 

 At one pond as many as 3124 fish purchased, and 619 captured (in one day) 

 were reserved, and produced 15,000,000 eggs. At another pond 2853 were 

 reserved, and, after twelve deaths, yielded just under 5,000,000 eggs. Such 

 collections may be distributed to several hatcheries, this being readily pos- 

 sible where the Government undertakes all hatching operations. 



With us in Scotland, where the right of salmon fishing is a heritable 

 estate like property in land, and where the interests of river districts are 

 therefore somewhat self-contained, the argument in favour of State hatching 

 does not apply with the same force ; and if any given district decided to 

 erect a hatchery capable, say, of treating 3,000,000 eggs, it would be neces- 

 sary to reserve for stripping, supposing the average fish to be 10 lbs. in 

 weight, yielding 800 eggs per pound weight of fish — 375 females, and, say, 

 a third of that number of males, making a total of 500 fish, not allowing 

 for any deaths amongst the fish, or for the smaller return of eggs per pound 

 weight of fish, which may readily occur if salmon are kept long in confine- 

 ment. The collection of such a number of fish is not to be lightly under- 

 taken, as any one who has netted rivers in the autumn will admit. It is 

 done by impounding, however, at Lismore, on the Black water in Ireland. 



It seems to me, therefore, that if we regard this whole question in an 

 impartial manner, and are not unduly influenced by individual cases, it is 

 evident that we have to do with successes on the one hand and failures on 

 the other, without being well able to explain in every case the causes of 

 either success or failure ; that the returns in adult fish which may be ex- 

 pected from a success do not appear substantial in view of the natural 

 conditions which obtain in Scotland, where we still have in a large number 

 of rivers as fine spawning grounds as ever \ and further that the provision 

 of hatcheries by the State cannot be reasonably advocated in the case of 

 Scotland owing to the nature of the title to salmon fisheries; while the 

 operations of procuring adequate numbers of fish for stripping are beset 

 by considerable difficulties, and that in the case of grossly polluted rivers 

 artificial hatching is of no avail. 



Kelts and the Spawning Mark on Scales. 



At a time when not a few are arguing in favour of eating kelts, and are 

 referring to results of salmon marking and scale examination to show that 

 kelts seldom return as clean fish, it is well to remember that most of our 

 netted fish are caught in the sea. 



Apart altogether from the question of whether or not kelts should 

 be eaten at the present time, it seems proper at least to correct a number 

 of the biased statements as to our knowledge which have recently been 

 advanced. 



A fair number of salmon have been found with scales showing as maDy 

 as three spawning marks, and as the majority of these fish were captured when 

 in the kelt condition it is clear they had spawned four times. In one instance 

 a kelt was found which had four spawning marks on its scales, and which 

 had therefore spawned five times. These fish were all from the river Add in 

 Argyll, and it may be that in other and similar West Highland rivers 

 similar results could be found. The percentage of previously spawned fish 



