284 
FISHES. 
Family STERNOPTYCHID-S. 
188. Maurolicus borealis (Nils.). Argentine. 
Eecorded by Mr. Peach from Wick, and Edward says it is 
never absent during January from the Banffshire coast, 
where it is a regular winter visitant. 
189. Argyropelecus hemigymnus (Cm.). 
Family SALM0NID.5:. 
190. Salmo salar, L. Salmon. 
Abundant, some years much more so than at others, the early 
run of spring fish depending on the mildness or severity of 
the winter; consequently the years 1882-3-4 are noted for 
the numbers of salmon caught early in the season. 
The rivers Kaver, Brora, and Helmsdale, in Sutherland, 
and the Thurso, in Caithness, are all early rivers, and clean 
salmon can be got in them in any month of the year, unless 
November, the principal spawning month, prove an excep- 
tion. 
Disease, we are sorry to say, has been very prevalent in 
the Brora and Helmsdale, commencing in 1882 on the 
Brora, and two years after on the Helmsdale. Some of 
the diseased fish were apparently " clean run " from the sea. 
Out of one small pool in the Upper Helmsdale twenty fish 
were taken with a net, and half of these were diseased ; 
still, when the spawning season came round (1885), few 
diseased fish were seen, so it is to be hoped the worst is 
over. On the Brora even the trout and smolts were 
affected. 
Salmon seem to keep to their own rivers even when 
two rivers join or run into one another. Thus the Berrie- 
