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The same methods and the same precautions as advised in the chapters on rearing trout should be adopted in the case of salmon and sea-trout as far as is possible, and if this is done a very large percentage of the ova should be successfully reared to the smolt stage. Compared to what is known about the early part of the life history of the Salmonidæ, our knowledge of coarse fish is small.
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.
They remain in this water-yard from April to autumn, when the gate is raised and they are let out into the river. And it is a very singular and interesting fact that those only go which have got their sea-coats on them, or have reached the "smolt" character.
In about fifteen months it loses these marks and becomes quite silvery, being now known as a smolt. Shortly after assuming the smolt dress, the young salmon takes its departure to the sea.
It is always found in the fresh water, looks something like a trout, and will take a fly or bait eagerly. The second stage is when it puts on the silvery coat previous to going to sea for the first time: it is then called a "smolt," and is from six to eight inches long, still living in the river where it was hatched.
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.
The next are the females of the present year: I have had one since the receipt of your letter, which weighed half an ounce and measured five inches in length; this was a real blue Smolt; the third are the males of the same age, and are much smaller; these are occasionally taken with the worm, and will rise at the fly all the next summer."
In some cases the young salmon do not appear to go down to the sea till over two years after being hatched out, but they should always be set at liberty in March, April, or May in the year following that in which they were hatched out, according to how far they have developed the smolt or silver appearance.
This great mortality which occurs among the eggs and young fish when left to nature may be very considerably reduced by artificial means, so that a very fair proportion of the eggs deposited by the female fish will not only be hatched out successfully, but the little fish will reach the smolt stage safely and have a good chance of reaching the sea.
In fact, in angling in the beginning of March, fish are often caught which would puzzle the most experienced fisherman to determine whether they are Par or Smolts, especially after they have been caught some time; and in a large number caught at that time there are all the intermediate shades of appearance between the perfect Par and the real blue Smolt. CLITHEROE, May 29th, 1834.
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