[Sept. 4, 1909. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
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SCALE OF A 4J4-POUND SALMON FROM NEWFOUNDLAND. 
Caught during the latter part of July. Female. Maiden fish, as shown by the 
absence of spawning marks. The first and second winters in the sea are well demon¬ 
strated. The exposed or tail end of the scale is somewhat frayed. The scales from 
the 7 and 8 pound Labrador fish mentioned in the text showed the same general 
character as the above scale. They contained about the same number of rings, but 
as the scales were larger, the rings appeared more sharply defined and were 
further apart. 
the river until September, told me that prac¬ 
tically no grilse ever come in the river. The 
scale reading of the 7 and 8-pound fish showed 
them to be five-year-olds and maiden fish, prov¬ 
ing that in this particular stream all or nearly 
all the fish spent their grilsehood in the sea* 
The larger fish all showed spawning marks. 
Scale reading, according to Mr. Hutton, is 
still in its infancy. It is claimed that an ex¬ 
pert on this subject can read off a fish’s history 
almost month for month from the time it is 
spawned by its scales. The only positive proof 
that we can get as to the correctness of scale 
reading is obtained from marked fish, the pre¬ 
vious histories of which are known. The men 
who have done this believe in the truth of the 
scale reading. I am inclined to believe that the 
results secured from the scale reading in the 
two above mentioned rivers is confirmatory as 
to the truth of scale reading, basing this chiefly 
on the uniform readings obtained from fish of 
the same size from the same river and in the 
fact that in the river where no grilse ran, all 
the 7 and 8-pound fish were maiden salmon; 
namely, fish that had never spawned, and that 
all the larger fish showed spawning marks. 
Silver Mitchell. 
*In the last report of the Scottish salmon fisheries 
Mr. Calderwood deals extensively with the question of 
the" absence of grilse in certain rivers. He suggests that a 
fish may take one river as a grilse and another, pos¬ 
sibly more suited to its adult requirements, as a 
salmon. This is different from the writer’s experience 
in Labrador. 
these fish, according to the above reading, had 
spent one winter in the sea; in other words, 
they were smolts of the preceding year and were 
consequently three-year-olds. Toward the end 
of the season there was a run of small salmon 
ranging from to 6 pounds. These fish also 
showed a uniform scale reading and were 
maiden fish which had spent two winters in the 
sea. Most of these fish were females, while 
almost all the grilse were males. In but one of 
all these small salmon examined were there any 
spawning marks. These fish were four-year- 
olds. Only thirteen fish of 12 pounds or over 
were caught, the largest of which was 22 pounds, 
a scale of which is shown in one of the illustra¬ 
tions. Two fish of 13 and 14 pounds, respec¬ 
tively, both female fish, showed a single spawn¬ 
ing mark each, apparently produced when the 
fish was a four-year-old. These fish had then 
spent the winter in the river, the following sum¬ 
mer and winter in the sea; in other words, these 
two fish had spawned once, as four-year-olds, 
probably weighing 4 or 5 pounds each. These 
fish were evidently bi-annual spawners. The 
fact that a considerable proportion of salmon 
spawn only every other year has been well es¬ 
tablished by Calderwood. He believes that the 
majority of the large fish, which constitute the 
first run of salmon in most rivers, are bi-annual 
spawners. 
During the past season I fished a Labrador 
river where the run of fish was quite different 
from the Newfoundland river just mentioned. 
The fish were very uniform in size, weighing 
between 7 and 8 pounds, about one fish in every 
ten being 12 pounds or over. Although our 
party stayed the entire season and caught some¬ 
thing over three hundred fish, but one grilse 
was secured, and this is the rule in this par¬ 
ticular river, as the warden who has been on 
the river for eight years and who remains on 
S.AA. 
H of<( 
7 ^ A . ty 0*4 
SCALE OF A 22-POUND FISH TAKEN IN NEWFOUNDLAND DURING THE LATTER PART OF JUNE—FEMALE. 
A represents the smolt growth. A to B, the first summer in the sea. B to C, 
first winter in the sea. C to D, summer growth—in the fall the fish spawned. 
Spawning marks are well shown. Note the shrunken, irregular outline of the scale 
at this point. D to E, represent the winter spent in fresh water. E to F, summer 
in the sea. F to G, winter in the sea. G to H, spring and early summer in the 
sea. This fish spawned first as a four-year-old, and would have spawned again as a 
six-year-old. Flence, this fish was a bi-annual spawner. About 35 per cent, of the 
large Newfoundland fish, which the writer has examined, were bi-annual spawners. 
Large hen kelts are usually the last foul fish to leave a river in the spring. A 
large proportion of these are bi-annual spawners. They constitute the early run of 
large fish the following spring. 
