the sea trout, after the young of the salmo class. After it assumes the migratory dress, there should be, no doubt, in the angler's mind, for there was a black line along the edge of the caudal fin, and a greenish or olive spot at the back of the head. I never heard of the common trout assuming the migratory coat. In the young common trout the body is more compact, and it has a stranger look than the orange fin, and the scales of the latter were more tender than the others. He had seen the smolts of the sea trout larger than those of the salmon, because the trout were more voracious feeders. The propensity for going down to the sea was much greater in the young of salmon than in the sea trout.

Cross-examined.-The orange fins often stay very late in the rivers, still with the migratory coat, some putting it on earlier than others, and it has not yet been determined how long the silvery coat takes to grow. The process is going on during the time they are making their way to, and even afterwards they lost the colour of the fins as they go down to the sea. The fario has been found in the tidal waters, but they do not put on a silvery coat. Early in the season, the young of the sea trout caught in the tidal waters was not easily distinguished from the young of the yellow trout.

By the Court.-He could not distinguish between the young of the salmo albus and the salmo ferox.

BY Mr. BARTY.-In 1836 the water bailiff at Nairn considered the orange fin the young of the sea trout. Bull trout have been got in Clyde above the fall. I believe they have been got through a drain from the Tweed.

Professor YOUNG recalled, and shown two fish, Nos. 7 and 8.I think that No. 7 is a sexually developed sea trout with a small roe in it, and No. 8 a fish with 11 bars, is a salmon parr.

ROBERT HOGG, superintendent of the town's fishing at Stirling, for 18 years, deponed that in one year they killed 6500; second year 5777; in another 5596; in all that 4365 sea trout. That is within the last six years. They would average from 14d to 16d.

WILLIAM MATHIE, fisherman, at Blackgrange, deponed that twothirds of the value of the fishings of the Teith were from the sea trout.

This finished the case for the complainant,

DEFENDER'S EVIDENCE.

There was no dis

THOMAS PERCY, salmon fisher on the Tweed, remembered that he assisted at the marking of salmon smolt, the sea trout smolt, and the orange fin, with silver wire above the tail. Mr. Paxton and Mr. Lilly were the principals. This was 25 years ago. tinctive feature in the marking. He had caught them during the first six months of several years in the Whiteadder, a few miles from Berwick. He had caught them in September with the silvery coating on them. There was no obstruction in the Tweed to prevent them going down to the river. He had been handling these salmon or sea trout smolts for 28 years, and never saw one after May; but after that he had seen orange fins plentiful, indeed. Every orange fin was marked with the wire above the tail. In the stomach of large yellow trout he had found both salmon and sea trout smolts, when they were in fresh water. He never found a fresh water trout with In his opinion, as a practical fisher, the orange fin was not the smolt of a sea trout, and not a fish that went down to the sea. He had also seen the common river trout in the tidal water. He never could catch a yellow fin with a yellow fin as a bait.

an orange fin in them.

Cross-examined.-At the time he assisted at the experiment he had spoken of, he was fifteen years of age. He had heard of experiments since. Thomas Todd Stoddart was a good angler, but not the best angler in the district, and Mr. Thomas Smith, and Mr. George Young, Berwick, were members of the experimental committee, and he did not know till to-day that it was their opinion that the orange fin was the young of sea trout.

Cross-examined.—If the orange fin were marked and came back as a whitling, he would not believe it. He could not tell the use of the silver coat put on by parrs. The sea trout smolt is like the salmon smolt, but shorter with lighter fins. (Shown fish, Nos. 1 to 8.) They are all yellow fins. He had never read a book on angling, and did not know that a bit of a parr was one of the deadliest baits for the salmon, nor that bull trout roe was the best bait for the salmon. He never heard of the marked yellow fin smolts, except those he had heard of in Court on the previous day. Re-examined.-His opinion was that the parr was not the young

of salmon.

By the Court. The parr was the young of salmon trout.

CHARLES CAMERON, living at Berwick, an angler of 30 years in river and sea, deponed, that he knew orange fin, and some called

K

them yellow fin. He had caught them at all times of the first season in tho rivers, and he never saw one at the sea coast. He never found an orange fin in the net drawn from the sea. The orange fin was not a fish that went down to the sea, but only tidal. Their going down to the sea was still a matter of dispute, and no information had been given to the public in Berwick, that they went down to the sea. He had found salmon smolts in the bull trout. The salmon had another enemy at the mouth of the harbour, and that was the cod. (Laughter.)

Mr. MACDONALD.-Oh, bother the cod. (Laughter.)

Cross-examined.-He was now a hawker, but he was for 30 years a salmon fisher. He had dragged dozens of yellow fins out with the net in the river, and with the same net he had never caught them in the Tweed. It was always his opinion that the yellow fin was the water trout. He had never heard of the experiments on the Tweed. He knew nothing of the history of the orange fin during the past 8 or 9 years since he left the fishing, but he believed that it was the same yet. (Laughter.) He never heard of the prosecutions for killing orange fins. He believed yellow fin to be yellow trout because they had yellow fins. He did not know anything about parr. He never knew that the first year of salmon fry was what was parr, and he never knew that salmon smolt had anything else than the silver coat. He had never seen the young of salmon before they were about an weight.

ounce in

ALEXANDER MARTIN, 26, Millbank Street, Glasgow, caught a fish in Lochleven which he handed to Mr. Cameron: he gave it as a specimen.

DAVID CAMERON, residing in Dunblane, deponed that he got a fish from last witness, and handed it to Mr. Walsh. He caught five small fish in a burn running into Lochleven.

Cross-examined.-Identified No. 7 as the trout he got from last witness, and No. 8 as one he had caught in a burn at Lochleven. Identified 1 to 6 as yellow trout.

CHARLES FREDERICK WALSH, Southall, London, deponed, that he was correspondent of the Field at Perth at one time. He was an angler of old standing; and considered the yellow fin as a yellow trout. All trout were so far migratory, and those in the river went down to the brackish water. He believed that salmo fario went down to the brackish water. He had caught silvery trout in running water where they could not possibly reach the sea. He was inclined to think that the yellow fin was a hybrid

between the salmo salar and salmo trutta.

He had heard it stated on the Tweed that the yellow fins were the young of the bull trout. There were no bull trout in the Allan, and the yellow fins there could not be the young of the sea trout. The fish produced, Nos. 7 and 9, were Lochleven trout which he had procured from the last witness.

Cross-examined. He had fished in Scotland, in the Tay and its tributaries. He had seen a great many eminent men bogle at the anatomical differences in the kinds of trout. No. 9 was a yellow trout, and No. 10 is more like a sea trout, but more spots on it than he would like to see. He did not know anything about the Tweed experiments.

Re-examined.-Fish have different habits in different rivers. He would not take the rule of one river to rule another. He thought yellow fin were hybrids, and according as they had a predisposition of sea-going propensities they would go to the sea.

WM. SNODGRASS, writer, Falkirk, deponed that he knew the fish called a yellow fin. He had caught it in the Allan this season, and had taken the same fish in the Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, and Lanarkshire rivers, at places where they could not possibly reach the sea. He had gutted these fish and never found one of them a male to his knowledge; and one he caught lately was a female. He thought the yellow fin to be a hybrid, and that they were in the river at all seasons of the year.

Cross-examined. He did not know anything about the experiments on the Tweed as to these fish (shewn fish.) Nos. 1 to 10 were all fish he would put in his basket; he did not see any yellow fins amongst them.

Mr. BARTY (handing up No. 10)-Open up the fish and tell us what it is.

WITNESS.-I'm not a fish doctor.

Mr. BARTY.-But you are in the habit of opening up your own fish.

Mr. MACDONALD.-But not in the habit of gutting yours; that's the difference.

ROBERT LEES, gunsmith, and fishing-tackle maker in Perth, deponed that he had paid a good deal of attention to fishing. He knew the fish called yellow fin, and he did not think they were migratory fish of the salmon kind. His principal reason was that the adipose fin was tipped with red, and this was never found in a migratory trout. In sea trout this fin was almost transparent. The smolt had a forked tail and the trout a square tail. The trout

of different rivers vary very much in their appearance. He caught similar fish with yellow fin in the way last week.

Cross-examined.-The young of the sea trout was the same as the young of the salmon. He judged of the yellow fin from their external appearance. He judged of the fish by the adipose fin being tipped with red, and he had seen and landed hundreds of parr from Stormontfield ponds, and these were not red tipped on the adipose fin. (Shown fish.) No. 1 to 10 they were all common

trout.

ALEXANDER CROALL, Perth, superintendent of Tay Fisheries, Perth, deponed that he had seen the fish founded on in this case, and thought they were a species of trout, and they were not like smolts or salmon fry.

Cross-examined.—He never saw young sea trout to his knowledge. JAMES HOOD, Stirling, lately a river watcher and a salmon fisher for nearly 35 years. He knew the yellow fin, and he considered them to be yellow trout, and he had seen them in the tidal water. He had also seen river trout there. Never got any instruction about sea going yellow fins, and anglers were allowed to take them.

Cross-examined.-Did not recollect of reporting cases of taking yellow fins; the cases as far as he recollected were for salmon smolts, and this was in 1870. The dead fin of the yellow fin was tipped red just as the yellow trout, and that was the reason why he did not think they were a sea-going fish.

DAVID BAYNE, builder, Dunblane, deponed that he had lived all his life in the neighbourhood of the Allan. The channel of the Allan was very shallow at the Mill of Keir. He had always been a keen fisher, and he knew the yellow fin, and it was yellow trout to his belief. He had examined a number of these yellow fins, and he found them to be chiefly females. He had found roe in them. There was great variety in the number and colour of the spots on the trouts. The tip of the adipose fin of the yellow fin was red, and that was considered an infallible sign in the district of their belonging to the yellow trout class. He heard for the first time two years ago, when a little boy was pulled up for catching a yellow fin, that a yellow fin was the young of a sea trout. That took the whole fishing fraternity by surprise, with the exception of Mr. Halliday. He took an interest in fishing, and he never took smolts since he was a boy, but he never heard of any one hesitating to take a yellow fin except Mr. Halliday. They were regularly sold to fish-mongers and exhibited in shops.