A SALMON ASTRAY If the migration of birds is one
of nature's great mysteries, as great a one is the behaviour of migratory fish. There is nothing mysterious about the departure from the river of spent fish but the reason for the journey of a salmon to a particular river is something upon which man never ceases to offer theories. Why do salmon run up some rivers early in the year and fail to enter others quite close at hand until much later? The other day I was in the company of fishery officials who had recently taken an early springer from a river that is not known to have fresh-run salmon in it until much later in the year. A stray, 1 suggested, and there was no other explanation, for salmon are known to return to their own river. Early fish run in early rivers and are said to produce early- running offspring. The pattern is plain even if
experts disagree on minor details of migratory habits. In this case one fish that should have found its native pool had somehow missed its way. The salmon, a fourteen-pounder, had been upriver to spawn before but this time, missing its way and taking a wrong turning, had met its end in strange waters.
Previous page
