practical angler should have no difficulty in putting the fish now libelled into the water again as sea-going fish.

Mr. MACDONALD. That is to say if he knew all that you knew?
WITNESS.-Well, then he should know. (Laughter.)

Mr. MACDONALD -And if he does not know all you know?
WITNESS. Then he should learn. (Laughter.)

Mr. MACDONALD.-Would you punish a boy for not knowing what he ought to know when he could not learn?

WITNESS. After I had told him twice. Many people are convinced of the fact. and still do not like to acknowledge it. I know that at the Coquet the Duke of Northumberland is exterminating bull trout in order to give more room and more safty for salmon. I think that the Duke is making a great mistake to destroy what he has for what he will never have.

Mr. MACDONALD.-Then you think that he ought to know better!

WITNESS.-Yes.

Mr. MACDONALD.-Are you aware that he is advised to do what he is doing by scientific men of great eminence?

WITNESS.-I am aware that he is advised by men of eminence,— but men of great scientific eminence, I am not aware. In fact, I think it is rather a mistake.

Mr. MACDONALD.-And they ought to learn.
WITNESS. They will learn by experience.

Sheriff Grahame complimented the witness for the clear and concise manner in which he had given his evidence.

DAVID BRUCE, Stirling, a member of the Stirling Fishing Club, deponed, he had been a practical angler for a number of years. He believed from inference that the yellow fin was the young of sea trout, but he could not state so positively, as he had never made any experiments. They have the parr to account for the young of the salmon, the small yellow trout to account for the young of the yellow trout, and it seemed to him that the yellow fin could be nothing else than the young of the sea trout. The yellow trout was much more distinctly marked on the fins than the yellow trout. In April they had less distinction in their general appearance from the yellow trout, but in the month of May the distinction becomes more easily seen. He had no doubt about their being migratory fish.

Cross-examined.-About two or three years ago he turned his attention to this subject, but he had never given it much thought. In the beginning of April there really were a number of specimens of both yellow trout and yellow fin that could not be told the one from

the other in outward appearance, and it would be necessary to make an anatomical observation to discover their true nature.

Mr. MACDONALD.—And to put them back into the river again to live after that, would be out of the question.

WITNESS.-I think so. There had been a great deal of dispute about the nature of the fish since this came up, but he had not heard much about it.

Re-examined. As a practical angler he had put back these fish when he caught them during the last three years.

Mr. MACDONALD.-And as a practical angler you kept them out before that. (Laughter.)

The case was resumed this morning before Mr. Sheriff Grahame. Mr. J. W. Barty, solicitor, appeared for the Fishery Board, and Mr. J. H. A. Macdonald, advocate, for the defendant.

Professor JOHN YOUNG, Natural History Department, Glasgow University, deponed-I have had occasion to consider the genus salmo. I have seen specimens of the yellow fin of the Allan, and also the fish libelled, and formed the opinion that they were migratory fish of the salmon kind, and that in fact they were the young of the sea trout. I thought so for the following reasons-from its migratory dress, and the anatomical points into which I went, which were the number of the pyloric appendages, and scales in different parts of the body, the general tint of the body, and the character of vomerine teeth. The yellow fin is generally more slender in the make of the bones, and the rays of the caudal fin are not so strong as in the river trout. These silver scales do not appǝar in any but sea going fish. The number of scales in the yellow fin taken on an oblique line from the adipose fin is greater than in the salmon and less than in the common trout. The proportion of scales in the yellow fin is 14 and in the river trout 15, 16, and even 17. The shape of the aperculum also differed. The position of the dorsal fin also showed a difference. He had not found milt or roe in yellow fin. Salmo fario of same size as those yellow fins libelled would have the sexual organs developed. The pyloric appendages in the river trout was 33 up to 45, and generally 35 and 36 as an average; sea trout from 47 or 48, and the numbers found in a yellow from the Allan, 59. The vomerine teeth of the yellow fin are in a single row, as con

trasting with a double row in the common yellow trout. In the river trout they are placed in the double series, but in the migratory fish they are placed in a single row, and the points of the teeth diverge so as to make them appear alternate. As the sea trout grows older they become lost by age, with the exception of one in the vomer. They disappear from behind forward. All the yellow fin of this size I have seen, were all in a more immature state than trout of this size. A pratical angler should have no difficulty in determining the genus of the yellow fin, when he takes it out of the water fresh.

Cross-examined.-I have had occasion for some years past to examine these fish for class teaching. I got no fixed data from books before as to the yellow fin of the Allan, and to me it was a new field of inquiry. I have discovered nothing different in the yellow fin of the Allan from the similar fish in other rivers. I found it necessary to make these anatomical researches to make sure of the character of the fish. I have not seen the pyloric appendages number less than 50. The limit of number of the salmo fario are usually put from 33 to 44 and 45. As to the vertebræ, the number in the common trout is not a distinctive feature, it is 59 in each. The first ray of dorsal fin in the yellow fin is connected with the 16th or 17th vertebra, and in the yellow trout, as far back as the 20th or 21st. The difference in the number of scales is a comparatively recent discovery. In the yellow trout you feel the points of vomerine teeth more distinctly, and on the yellow fin they are slightly deflected, and many points will not be felt. The number of teeth was about the same on each, and advanced science is now showing that there is only roe in all the salmon kind. The differences of the measurements of aperculum are only of relative value. The head of the sea trout is about 4th of the whole length; in the yellow fin it is less, and in the salmo fario it is somewhat smaller. The sexual organs of the yellow fin from the Allan were not developed, and they appeared to him to be of no sex at all. They will never again, after producing ova, return to the state of the yellow fin. If a fish of any kind was found in the river Allan with roe or milt in it, I would not say it was a young sea trout. The red tips on the dead fin is a common salmoidic character. There are cases in brackish water at mouths of rivers, where the river trout takes on the silver coat, but I have never met with any. The silver scale is an evidence of their going not merely to the tidal water, but to the sea proper. As to the orange fin of the Tweed it had been traced to the sea proper, but this had not been done as regarded the Forth or the Allan. All the fish

libelled are sea trout in the migratory stage. The yellow fin is not the brachypoma; it was the genuine salmo trutta. The distinction between bull trout and sea trout is only a local and not a zoological distinction. I have not ascertained whether there are two kinds of the trout in the Allan-as the bull trout and the sea trout. The remark is made regarding the Tweed that the bull trout is destructive of young salmon, but he had no experience in the matter. He did not think it a mistake on the part of the Duke of Northumberland to extirpate the bull trout out of his fisheries. He had seen several hybrid fish from the Allan, but they were a small proportion of those he had examined. They appeared to be hybrids of sea trout and yellow trout, but he had no special interest in the matter. It was only of late years that these nice questions had been begun to be inquired into. on account of their economic value. Their importance was only for the preservation of the species for economic purposes. The "orange fin" of the Tweed, it has been ascertained, goes down to the sea and returns. He was not aware that any of the fish of the Allan called "yellow fins" had been traced to the sea.

Mr. MACDONALD.-Do you know the book by Mr. Russel of the Scotsman on fish?-I have not read it.

Mr. Macdonald then read the following extract :

Beyond that, in the question about "fish of the salmon kind."Salmo ferox, Salmo trutta, Salmo albus, &c., &c.,-lies a vast field almost pathless, and thickly covered with on underwood of doubt and confusion. There are, perhaps, half a dozen species or varieties, all of more or less different habits, and almost all having different names in different localities, besides which the same name is often applied to different species; and the young and the adult of one species are sometimes classed as two species, sometimes vice versa. The facts, in short, are in darkness and confusion, and their confusion is twice confounded by a wretched nomenclature." (Laughter.) Is that a fair representation of the state of information on the subject ?-Scarcely.

If that is correct, it must be as regards the practical angler, and not as regards scientific men, I suppose ?—I should imagine it would be as regards the person who seldom fishes.

The person who wrote this ?-No.

This book is writen by a well-known angler.

Dr. YOUNG.-There has been a good deal done since 1864.

Mr. MACDONALD.-During the eight years since then, there has been a good deal of information obtained ?-Yes. That information was in existence before that amongst practical anglers.

Mr. Russel is a specimen of a practical angler who thought this a region of doubt and confusion ?—Yes.

And since then there was doubt that a great deal of the confusion had disappeared, you think?-Yes; and fixed views are now becoming more fixed.

Is Mr. Russel's work a scientific authority?—I have heard it referred to more as regards legislation than scientific zoology.

Re-examined.-I have seen the orange fin of the Tweed, and from external appearance I think them the same fish. In the first year the characteristics of the young of salmon, sea trout, and yellow trout are not very marked. Young brachypoma may have yellow fins, and have gone under the name of "yellow fins." Never heard of ferox being found above the tidal waters, with the sea going dress, and in point of fact they never go down below to the salt water without it. There was a possibility of hybrids of the sea and common trout showing earlier sexual development than the pure young sea trout. The maxillary bone was stronger in the young yellow trout, as were all the rest of the bones.

Re-examined.-I have never found a ferox with a sea going dress, and this was commonly understood to be so among ichthyologists.

By the Court.-The scale of the Lochleven trout was not so bright in its plumage. The coloration of the sea going fish was the result of their having to go to the sea, and not on account of the colour of the bottom or the nature of their feeding.

THOMAS TODD STODDART, advocate, residing in Kelso, a practical angler, author of several books on angling, deponed that he had fished in most of the rivers of Scotland. He resided on the Tweed for 36 years, and had had his attention constantly devoted to the subject of fishing. He knew the orange fin of the Teviot and the Nairn, and they are the same as the yellow fin of the Allan. He considered the fish libelled were the young of the sea trout. He found the orange fin in the months of May and June. The results of the experiments on the Tweed was that the orange fin were the young of the sea trout. In Nairn in 1830, he found migratory fish coming up with the tide, and half a mile from the mouth of the river, In the salt water, he had caught the orange fin in great numbers. In 1866 while marking some black tail at the mouth of the Tweed, he found along with others, among brackish water, a lot of orange fins in the bag of the net. This was in the tidal water. Mr. Shaw, of Drumlanrig, made similar experiments with the like results, and Mr. Wilson, another fisher, held the same opinion. It was acknowledged by every angler on the Tweed, that the orange fin was the young of