Vol 5 - Dumfriesshire & Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian ...

36 Tran.sactions.not run by day, but by night.Only during a spate would theyrun by day. Some nights they did not run at alL On othernights three or four went up, which was a Lirge number for thatstream. The early fish were mostly males. It was quite exceptionalto get a female very early in the season. Later on theyfound both sexes coming up. I also found that they almostinvariably run on spring tides, and that they did so whether therewas a spate or not. A westerly gale during the spring tides wasfollowed, as expected, by a run of tish.I noticed one |^ir of fishparticularly that came up lately. They had evidently beenprevented ascending the stream before.Tliey came to a suitableplace, where they constructed a redd and deposited the ova.Tliis took about a week.I then took away the female and placedher in a tank, and waited to see what the other fish would do.thought it probable that he would go up stream and try tofind another female. But he dropped back into the next f)oolfurther down stream, and remamed there two days and twonights ; on the third night he dropped down three pools further ;then into another pool further down stream ; and from there Iconcluded he had gone down to the sea- Fish having spawned,evidently have a desire to get away again to the sea ; and IIjelieve it is often owing to their not being able to get awaywith sufficient rapidity that they were attacked by the horriblefungus which abounds in our rivers in some seasons. A remarkablefact which I observed was the appearance in the stream offour spent female fish, which I was perfectly satisfied had notbeen in the stream befoi-e. I concluded that they were Nithsalmon which had descended that river after spawning, and, forsome reason, went up this little bit of a stream for about threemiles. Unfortunately, owing to some misunderstanding, and acomplaint by the tacksman that the fish were being interferedwith, the observations were brotight prematurely to a close. Itis only, however, when observations of this nature were made onmost of our streams, and reports sent in to some central committee,to be investigated and classified, as has already been donein the case of birds—when all those who are personally interestedin our fisheries bestir themselves and investigate the facts inconnection therewith, or place facilities in the hands of otherswho can do it for them—that we can expect to unravel themysteries of nature.We shall scarcely notice the well-established fact that instinctI