S4«6 On the Natural History of the Salmon^ 
the act of depositing their spawn.” He adds, that the male gets a very long 
hard bill on his under jaw, which decreases as the spawning season passes 
p. 108. Sir H. Davy asserts (but whether from having seen the operation is 
not stated), that the female fish, in spawning, deposits her eggs slowly on 
gravel ; the male sheds a white seminal liquid upon them ; and both fish cover 
the eggs with gravel. The male is most active in this operation, which har- 
dens the extremity of the mouth, and bends it into the form of a hook p. 145. 
The opinion here expressed, that the female first deposits her roe, and then 
the male sheds the milt upon them, stands contradicted by the preceding eye- 
witness ; and, Ave may add, that it is not the extremity of the mouth or nose, 
but the extremity of the lower jaw^ v/hich is bent up ; and Avere this bending 
produced by the resistance of the gravel in the act of covering up the spawn, 
then the lower jaAv in males, before they had spawned, should be much longer 
than the upper, Avhich the witness will find not to be the case ; and the gravel 
we should think, would be rather apt to enter the mouth. This bending is in 
a great measure characteristic of the male; but the peculiarities of its form 
and position demonstrate that it could not be produced by mechanical means. 
The quantity of eggs deposited by a single female, has been variously sta- 
ted by different authors. Mr Johnstone says, “ I have counted them (eggs 
in the roe) repeatedly ; they are from 1 8,000 to 20,000 on an aA^erage p. 36. 
Mr Halliday says, “ They are not all exactly of the same number ; I have 
found them of different numbers, from 17,000 to 20,000 p. 62. 
It may be proper here to inquire, whether, according to the present fish- 
ing season, the salmon are ever disturbed on their spaAvning-beds ? Alas, bu t 
too frequently I James Gillies declares, that, in reference to the year 1819 
in the Tay, “ we took eighteen at one haul, in the month of December, of 
fish spaAvning on the spaAvning-beds p. 138. 
Leaving for a little the spawning-beds, let us attend to the character and mo- 
tions of the spawned fish, or kelts, as they are termed. In this state, says Mr 
Wilson, “ when the spawn is just leaving the fish, it is merely just two pieces of 
skin, just like a cow in calf p. 13. Mr Johnstone adds, “ By a kelt is meant a 
fish which has recently spawned ; it is very thin ; it gets very much discoloured ; 
it is very long in comparison with its thickness ; the head is very large ; the fish is 
quite out of season ; the fish then cuts white in general p. 37. Mr Wilson de- 
clares, from six or eight years experience in the North Esk, in Forfarshire ; the 
Dee and the Don, in Aberdeenshire ; the Beauly and Lochy, in Inverness-shire, 
“ in fact, fishing those fisheries before the first of February, you would catch no- 
thing but black fish (kelts),” p. 13. When the process of spaAvning is finished, ac- 
cording to Mr Halliday, “ they go into a pool to recruit themselves {recruiting in 
fresh water, so exhausting to fish !) ; and, in about a fortnight or three weeks there- 
after, then the male fish begins to seek his way down the river. The female fish 
remains longer about the spawning ground ; and 1 have very often found some of 
the mother fish going down a kelt as late as when the first of the fry began to come 
down the river.”— “ In the end of April and beginning of May, I have taken five 
at one haul in the river Annan,” p. 62. He says, in February and March, “ rw- 
mense numbers are caught and, “ in the upper parts of the Tay, there must be 
thousands taken annually,” p. 83. James Gillies has formerly stated the number 
of foul fish (kelts) in February. He adds, “ You could not commence before the. 
month of March, AA'ithout taking the foul fish, because the most part of the she fish 
