Essays in Natural History and Agriculture | Page 3

parts of the river
Wharfe, being prevented either by the high weirs in the lower parts, or
by some other cause, and of course there were no Smolts or Par; but in
that year either the incessant rains of that summer or rumours of the
formation of an association for the protection of fish, or some other
unknown cause, enabled some Salmon to ascend the river, thirty or

forty miles, and to spawn there. In the next spring, 1817, there were no
Smolts, but about September they began to rise at the very small flies
which the anglers use in that river--they were then a little larger than
Minnows. In the spring of 1818 there were blue Smolts, or what are
generally known as Salmon fry, which went down to the sea in the May
of that year; but these were only part of the brood, the females only, the
males remaining all that summer, being at the period when the females
went down very much smaller than they, and what was called at the
Wharfe Grey Smolt and Pinks, or Par elsewhere.
I have shown that there were two migrations from the spawn of 1816;
but this was not all--there still remained a few Smolts through the
summer of 1819, which by that time were from four to six ounces in
weight, and which are known by the anglers there as Brambling Smolts.
The blue marks on their sides are very distinct, and the fish is a perfect
Smolt, except that it is considerably larger. It is quite different from the
Whitling, or Sprod, which is not known in the Wharfe, at least not in
the upper parts of that river, whilst the Brambling is never seen in the
Ribble. [1]
The Brambling is a beautiful fish, and it rises very freely both at the
May fly and the artificial fly through the summer; it is occasionally
caught by anglers with the worm on the Salmon spawning beds in the
autumn, with the milt perfectly developed, and in a fluid state.
Although this fish is not found in the Ribble, so far as my observations
and inquiries have gone, I believe that it is found in the Tweed, and
perhaps also in other rivers running into the German Ocean; for a letter
addressed to Mr. Kennedy, who was chairman of the select committee
appointed to investigate this subject, by a Mr. George Houy, states that
the Smolts are sometimes found there ten inches long, which he
attributes to their not being able to get down at the proper period for
want of a flood in the river. But I know that in the Ribble Smolts will
go down to the sea without there being a flood at all, if that does not
come within ten days or a fortnight of the time at which they usually
descend to the sea. I also know that Brambling are found in the Wharfe,
in years where there has been no deficiency in that respect; yet why
they should be common in that river, when they are never met with in

the Ribble, which has ten times as many Salmon and Smolts in it, I am
unable to comprehend.
It is my opinion that the ova of the Salmon are not hatched before
March or April. Two anglers, who were in April wading in the river
Wharfe, came upon a spawning bed, which they had the curiosity to
examine; they found a number of ova, in which they could see the
young fry already alive, and one of them took these eggs home with
him. By regularly and frequently supplying them with fresh water, he
succeeded in hatching them, and kept some of the young fishes alive
for some time; but they died in consequence of neglect, and were even
then very diminutive. The opinion generally received in Scotland seems
to be, if I may judge from the evidence given before the House of
Commons, that the Smolts go down to the sea in the spring after they
are spawned, and that they return in the summer and autumn of the
same year as Grilse. When they return, and what size they are on their
first visit, I have hitherto been unable to ascertain; but I think I have
succeeded in proving that they do not go to the sea so soon as is
generally believed, nor do any of the witnesses give their reasons for
thinking that they do. I should very much like to learn what evidence
they have to offer in behalf of this opinion.
I remember seeing an article in the "Scotsman," perhaps about twelve
months ago, in which it was stated that Dr. Knox had made some
important discoveries in the natural history of the Salmon and Herring,
both in