The natural history of the salmon Author:William Brown Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: subsequently, how it was that so many of the pond fish had got on the smoult scales, if not ready to go to sea? Mr Shaw said that all parrs at this season put on... more » these scales but threw them off again. We replied that this was not in accordance with our experience. We again asked Mr Shaw if none of the pond fish would seek to go to sea? He said some might go, but not many; although he had seen them go the first year. The Committee then left, and the keeper was ordered to retain the fish in the pond; but some of the tacksmen of the salmon fishings on the Tay, who were present, were so convinced that the fish were smoults, that they threatened not to pay their rents if the smoults were not allowed to go. FIRST MIGRATION OF THE SMOULTS, 1855. On the 19th of May, Mr Buist becoming convinced that the fry had become smoults, i.e., had taken on the silvery scales, caused a great many to be marked by cutting off the dead or second dorsal fin, and turning them into the river. The sluice was drawn, and the fish were allowed to depart; but, contrary to expectation, almost none showed any inclination to leave until the 24th of May, when the exodus began, and a shoal camedown to the marking-place, when the keeper was engaged at the time in marking, amounting, according to his calculation, to something like 5000, and so full of fish was the marking-trough, that he had to desist and let them escape into the river without being marked. The mark this year was cutting off the second dorsal fin. By the 3d of June the keeper had marked 1300, and it was quite evident that many of the fry would not seek to migrate this season, as they had not taken on the smoult dress. An article in the Scotsman newspaper, from an English correspondent, contained a theory, that the remaining parrs would be all mal...« less