FINIS.

NOTES.

[1] There is a fish somewhat resembling the Brambling in the Dunsop, a tributary of the Hodder, where it is known by the name of the Bull Penk.

[2] My opinion that neither Trout nor Salmon spawn every year is I think strongly corroborated by the fact, that previous to the Act of 1861 the London fish market was supplied with Salmon of the largest size, and of the best quality, in October, November, and December.  When these fish were examined, it was found that the ovaries were but small, and the individual ova were not larger than mustard seed.  These fish could not have spawned that season, nor would they have done so if left alive, if the growth of the ova in the ovaries is uniform—­I mean if the growth of the ova is as great in one month as another—­because in May and June the ova in a female Salmon is four times as large as these were in November.

Again, when the gas tank at Settle was emptied into the Ribble, in September, 1861, all the fish so far as was known were killed between that place and Mitton, Salmon as well as Par and Trout.  Supposing that Salmon spawn every year, and that the Smolts come up the river, as Grilse in the summer of the same year in which they have gone to the sea in the spring, there ought to have been a great scarcity of both Grilse and Salmon in the Ribble in the year 1862, but so far was this from being the case, that both Grilse and Salmon were more abundant that season than they had been for some years previously, but there was a scarcity of both in 1863.

Again, when the Smolts were turned out of the breeding ponds at Dohulla, Galway, the experiment was looked upon as a failure because no Grilse returned the same season, not one having showed itself, but many came the summer after, proving pretty conclusively that in some rivers, at all events, the Smolt requires a year’s residence in the sea before it returns as Grilse.

[3] In the evidence of Mr. George Hogarth, it is stated that he saw upwards of ninety Kelt fish in the mill lead at Grandholme, on the Don, May 6th.

[4] Salmon are said to produce 18,000 or 20,000 eggs each, and I have no doubt that a large Salmon will produce more, as one I examined a year or two ago, of about ten pounds weight, had a roe which weighed two pounds nine ounces, and the skin in which the eggs were enveloped (they were not in the loose state in which they are found just before exclusion) weighed three ounces, after all the eggs were washed from it; so that there were thirty-eight ounces of eggs.  I weighed fifty of them, and found they weighed sixty-five grains.  At that rate, thirty-eight ounces would give 12,788, and 300 lbs. 1,615,000; but as they would be much lighter when dried and potted than when taken from the belly of the fish, we may safely estimate that the 300 lbs. would contain 2,000,000, a prodigious number to pass through the hands of one tackle maker in a season.