Sept. 24, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
501 
Grilse and Salmon. 
New York City, Sept. 15. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I should like some information as to 
the weights of grilse. On Tobique they run 
from three pounds to live and a half pounds; is 
that true of ail grilse, or do they vary in the 
different rivers? 
I killed this summer a grilse of a size I had 
never heard of before. It was fourteen and one- 
eighth inches long, two and a quarter inches 
deep and weighed exactly one pound. My theory 
is that by some accident he failed to get to sea 
between his smolt and grilse periods; is that 
tenable? Are all grilse males? 
The Tobique guides' explanation of their story 
that only the male grilse returned to the river 
was that, as the early runs of salmon were most¬ 
ly females and got up to the upper pools of the 
rivers on the higher wafer, the large males of 
the later (and low water) runs could not get 
up so far, so the male grilse fertilized the fe¬ 
males of the upper pools. If grilse in the rivers 
are of both sexes, do female grilse spawn? 
Colonel Emmet agrees with the guides that 
only male salmon return to the rivers in the 
grilse period. Is there no book to be had on 
salmon on our Atlantic coast? The dates, etc., 
of salmon runs in the United Kingdom are so 
different from ours as to make comparison 
difficult. Oxbow. 
[Malloch, in his book on "The Salmon," states 
that in the River Tay the grilse appear about 
the last of May, when their weights are one and 
a half to two and a half pounds, and often 
smaller in other rivers. The Scottish rivers are 
earlier than the Tay, and grilse appear in them 
as early as April 1. By the end of June these 
weighed about five pounds; Aug. 1, eight pounds; 
Sept. 1, ten pounds. 
Calderwood, in his "Life of the Salmon,’’ 
mentions sixteen grilse previously marked which 
were recaptured in the Tay from June 1 to Aug. 
4. Their weights ranged from three to seven 
pounds. One of the records for early appear¬ 
ance is that of a two and a quarter-pound grilse 
taken at the mouth of the Dee, March 6, 1905. 
According to the records of the Scottish Fish¬ 
ery Board, 15,000 grilse were taken at Aberdeen 
and reported by the Harbor Commission of that 
city in 1885. The average weight in round num¬ 
bers was four pounds thirteen ounces. 
Comeau, in his “Life and Sport on the North 
Shore,’’ claims that grilse enter fresh water in 
July-September of their fourth or fifth year, 
weighing from three to five pounds. 
Another reference from Malloch’s book re¬ 
lates to ponds which, we take it, are connected 
with the Tay: “The fry which were hatched 
in March, 1903, become smolts in April. 1905, 
and migrated to the sea in April and May. 1905, 
at the age of two years. The first run of these 
returned to the river as grilse weighing from 
one and a half to twelve or thirteen pounds, 
from the last week in May till the end of De¬ 
cember, 1906. The second run continued to come 
from the middle of December, 1906, to the mid¬ 
dle of June, 1907, and weighed from six to thir¬ 
teen pounds. The third run returned from the 
middle of July, 1907. to the end of December, 
and weighed from twelve to thirty pounds. The 
fourth run extended from the middle of October, 
1907, to the end of May, 1908. and weighed from 
thirteen to thirty-eight and occasionally forty 
pounds. The average weight was about twenty 
pounds, but it varies a pound or two from year 
to year. The fifth run came on in May, 1908, 
and lasted till December, and their weight was 
from twenty to forty-five pounds. The sixth 
run, which began in December, 1908, will con¬ 
tinue till December, 1909.” 
Elsewhere Malloch says: “Grilse from four 
to thirteen pounds run from the middle of May 
until the middle or end of December. These 
spawn the same season as they come up, and 
become kelts. Many of them, both male and 
female, die after spawning, the mortality among 
the males predominating.” 
He justifies this assertion by saying that posi¬ 
tive information to this effect has been obtained 
through marking the salmon. Further on he 
says: “Almost all the kelts that have been 
marked on the Tay and recaptured have been 
females.’’ 
Perhaps there is something in the size of the 
fish which has given the guides their idea that 
the grilse males and the salmon females spawn 
at the same time. I11 “Letters to a Salmon 
Fisher’s Sons,” A. H. Chaytor, who has taken 
a great deal of interest in salmon habits, gives 
a number of instances where males of small 
size and females of twenty-five or thirty pounds’ 
weight were seen spawning together, and in 
other cases large males and small females. He 
also mentions seeing grilse of four or five 
pounds in the company of several males and 
females of large size. 
This author claims that he has watched the 
salmon spawning every winter for fifteen years 
in a river where the water is so clear and shal¬ 
low that all of the actions of the fish can be 
seen at a distance of a few feet. There is much 
speculation in the books on salmon habits. One 
of the old authorities in effect claims that the 
salmon bury their eggs at a depth of three or 
four feet, which is manifestly impossible. Mr. 
Chaytor, who has devoted much time to the 
subject, claims that so far as he can determine 
by close observation, he is of the opinion that 
no direct attempt whatever is made by either 
the male or the female salmon to form hollows 
for the ova, or to cover it up afterward. He 
claims that the covering of the ova with gravel 
and stones follows the action of the fish natur¬ 
ally, and as they spawn in swift water, and the 
records show that the eggs are invariably found 
in the gravel several feet below the position 
taken by the female, it seems probable this is 
correct. —Editor.] 
Bass Fishing. 
Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 17. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: The fishing has by no means been 
up to its standard, and only good fishing from 
this date forward will reclaim the reputation of 
the year. I see no reason for this slackness of 
the fish to take the bait. I have whipped the 
waters morning and evening with no results to 
speak of. I have- used wooden minnows, frogs, 
grasshoppers, helgramites and live minnows with 
about equal luck. The bass have not yet come 
up in the shallows. I have caught a good num¬ 
ber of the black bass tribe while still-fishing, 
showing that they are yet in the deeps. The 
lakes and creeks are very low. 
Robert Page Lincoln. 
American Fishes in Austrian Waters* 
In the belief that it might greatly interest 
American fish breeders to know what experi¬ 
ences and observations have been made -by 
Austrian pisciculturists in regard to fish imported 
from America for breeding purposes, and in com¬ 
pliance with a special invitation from the com¬ 
mittee of the Fourth International Fishery Con¬ 
gress, Washington, 1908, the Imperial and Royal 
Austrian Fishery Society has called upon the 
prominent fish breeders to furnish their observa¬ 
tions regarding the results obtained with such 
American fish. These results, which are briefly 
set forth here, warrant the conclusion that of all 
the salmonidse which can be taken into account 
for breeding purposes the American rainbow 
trout must be regarded as the most important. 
This trout, which has now been in Austrian 
waters for a quarter of a century, despite mani¬ 
fold opposition has gained, so to say, the rights 
of citizenship there. Owing to its excellent qual¬ 
ities it has been quickly introduced into all pond 
fisheries and is really a first class salmonid. In 
consequence of its ability to endure deep water, 
the number of ponds in which it can grow is 
quite considerable, and pond-fish owners would 
be well advised to allow plenty of room for the 
rainbow trout, without forgetting, however, that 
after all it is a salmonid. Its capacity to stand 
high temperatures enables it to replace the pike 
in carp ponds, the more so as it does not possess 
the dangerous qualities of the latter. 
The irideus is just as indifferent to high tem¬ 
peratures as to cold. Therefore at a time when 
the Salmo fontinaUs, or brook char, and the 
native brook trout have long ceased to take food 
the irideus still comes to its meals, and the ad¬ 
vantage offered to the breeder by its appetite,/ 
displayed even when the pond is covered with 
ice, must not be underestimated. In addition to 
this its power of resistance against diseases is 
amazing. It is not only—perhaps owing to its 
perceptibly thicker skin—far less exposed to the 
attacks of the malignant Saprolegniacese than all 
the other Salmonidae, and therefore very rarely 
seized with fungus, but it also appears to possess 
immunity from the most dangerous bacterial dis¬ 
eases, such as furunculosis. Its indifference to 
polluted waters enables it to live in water courses 
where no other salmonid could thrive. Even in 
the immediate neighborhood of factories dis¬ 
charging waste water and refuse, where both the 
brook trout and the char could certainly not 
exist, irideus flourishes and grows fat. It ap¬ 
pears to be specially valuable for exclusively or 
partially populating the numerous cold ponds in 
the forests of lower Austria, which in conse¬ 
quence of their low temperature, severe climate, 
and exposed situation are less adapted for carp 
breeding - . Altogether it must be said that the 
irideus has fully come up to all that has been ex¬ 
pected from it in nearly every instance. 
Thus until very recently all breeders joined 
in a panegyric of the irideus. But things have 
now changed. The sad discovery has been made 
that the much-praised power of resistance of the 
rainbow trout in ponds against disease rapidly 
decreases and that this fish if strongly fed now¬ 
adays suddenly shows a remarkable frailty, nay 
(Continued on page 513.) 
*By Franz Von Pirko, President of the" Imperial and 
Royal Austrian Fishery Society: A paper read at the 
annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society. 
