bucket" the ponds are to the Tay itself; therefore the better plan would be to try and help the many instead of the few. Although there are no obstructions on the Tay, there are plenty on its tributaries; and that the tributaries are great breeding-grounds is proved by the great number found at the mouth of the Almond waiting to get up that river, and also by the numbers seen in small rivers where there is no obstruction.

The successful spawning of all those fish, and many hundreds more, depended almost entirely on the weather. If there did not come enough rain to fill the Almond before the fish were ready to spawn, they would spawn where they were, and not being a proper place, and so many huddled together, the most of the spawn would be lost. The Almond is, therefore, partially obstructed. It is only when it is in a flooded state that fish can get up; and this obstruction will not be easily removed, as it is caused by nearly the whole of the water in the Almond being taken off about two miles above its mouth by a lade, for the use of the mills at Huntingtower, Ruthven, Tullochfield, and also a number of mills in Perth. There are also about half-a-dozen damdykes to go over before the fish can reach safe breeding-grounds; and as this river often falls in as suddenly as it rises, the fish are left between the dykes a prey to poachers. Another great drawback to the fish going up the Almond is that the whole of the poisonous liquids used at the bleach-fields is allowed to go into the river. This is a thing that should not be allowed to go on. It could easily be kept out of the river, with scarcely any trouble or expense to the bleachers.

Going up the Tay, the next two tributaries we come to are the Shochie and the Ordie, whose waters join immediately before they fall into the Tay at Lancarty. Until within the last few years, they both afforded excellent breeding-grounds for salmon; but now they are entirely shut up by a dam-dyke, which is built close to where they fall into the Tay. It seems strange that the fishing proprietors allowed this to be done on one side of the Tay, and to go on, without anything being said or done to remedy the evil; while they were busy on the other side constructing the Stormontfield breeding-ponds. This was, and still is, "penny-wise and pound-foolish," for the ponds will not hold one per cent. of the fish that would spawn in these rivers, if they only could get into them. Something should certainly be done to remove this obstruction. If a ladder cannot be used, fish might be taken out of the Tay, and put over the dyke, at the same time as they are taking them out to supply the Stormontfield ponds.

Sir John Richardson, Bart., of Pitfour Castle, Perthshire, writing in Land and Water, for the benefit of the Salmon Fisheries Congress, says that the kelts of salmon and sea-trout are the greatest enemies salmon have in fresh water, and seals in the salt water; and he says he does not believe in increasing the number of fish on the breedinggrounds, as, he says, the males fight and kill one another, and therefore do more harm than good. But we think Sir John is entirely wrong in his idea that the kelts are the greatest enemies the fish have. The fights on the breeding-grounds are so rare that they cannot possibly make any material difference in the number of fish in the river. It cannot be the overcrowding on the breeding-grounds that causes a scarcity of salmon, for if we go back half a century in the

history of the Tay, there were about a hundred kelts for every one there is now; and salmon were so plentiful that the people did not know what to do with them, there being no railways to carry them fresh to market; so plentiful were they that we find it quoted over and over again that farm-servants on the banks of the Tay engaged not to be forced to eat salmon more than two or three days a-week.

Sir John also refers (for an example that the kelts injure the breeding of salmon) to the comparatively unfished rivers of Labrador; but we suspect the climate has more to do with the breeding of salmon in the rivers there than the kelts. The winter there generally extends over nine months of the year, which must be greatly against salmonbreeding. But look at the rivers where they have a suitable climatethe rivers of Norway, Canada, British Columbia, &c. When first discovered, they were all swarming with salmon-so much so that in some of the rivers in British Columbia, within the last few years, the salmon were so plentiful that they were actually pushing one another out of the water for want of room. Now, if the kelts were the greatest enemies the salmon have in fresh water, this would never be the case. The real cause of the salmon being scarce is that the river is too much fished with nets. If we look at the number of nets a salmon has to pass before it reaches Perth, we may wonder how one ever gets up as far as the fair city. If it were not for Sunday putting a stop to the nets once a week, there would be very few salmon seen above Perth during the net-fishing season; and we have no doubt that the salmon-fishing in the Tay would be greatly improved by the close time being still farther extended, and the nets taken off another day in the week.

A PRIZE HUNTER, THE PROPERTY OF MAJOR STAPYLTON.
ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY E. CORBET.

BY CASTOR.

Sprig of Nobility, bred by Mr. Crowther Harrison in 1860, is by Sprig of Shillelah out of Marigold by Young Comus, her dam by Woldsman, and Woldsman by Hampton.

Sprig of Shillelah, bred by Mr. Copperthwaite, in Ireland, in 1854, is by Simoom out of The Thorn, by Harkaway, and hence his title. Sprig of Shillelah was a very good race-horse at three years old, winning a lot of things right off towards the close of the season. He only started, however, once as a four-year-old, and stood at Mr. Brigham's at Beverley, in 1859. In the autumn of the same year he was shipped for Hungary, but from a few mares he left a good taste of his quality behind him in such runners as Erin-go-Bragh and Donnybrook, both of which could pay their way. We recollect seeing Sprig of Shillelah run for the Derby when they subjected him to the indignity of looking into his mouth, and we met with him again at the Warwick Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, where, although he did not get a prize, he struck us as being a wiry, varmint, and very good-looking horse.

1

Sprig of Sobility,

Marigold, bred by Mr. F. Hengh, of Northallerton, n 1846, has in her time been very successful in the show-ring, as a mare for breeding hunters, while she has further proved herself, at the stud, as the dam of amongst others, Sprig of Nobility and Melton, two of the very neatest hunting horses we ever saw paraded. Marigold is and has been for some time past in the possession of Mr. Clarke, of Howden, who generally enters her at the All-Yorkshire Meetings, where she has been first three times over, although the judges of late have not noticed her, and at Thirsk this season, in very moderate company, she was one of the very first they ordered off. She is a mare of great power and full of hunting character, and with better shoulders would be almost perfect for her purpose. Mr. Booth, who hunted her for six or seven seasons, says "a better never crossed a country."

Sprig of Nobility is a bright clean bay, with a white leg, two white heels, and a star in his forehead. He stands sixteen hands two inches high, and is a very elegant-looking horse, with plenty of length, bone, and quality. He has a good kind head, laying his ears in mere play, for he has a beautiful temper, and is quite free from vice. With a nice light neck that he carries well with any one with hands on him, he has good shoulders, middle, and quarters, and big round muscular arms and thighs. If he has a fault it is that his pasterns are too long, which gives him rather spider-like action. He was entered at Islington as "a perfect weight-carrying hunter-price 650 gs."

Sprig of Nobility first made his mark, whatever he might have been doing about home previously, at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Meeting o the Royal Agricultural Society in 1864, where, as the property of Mr. Clarke, he took the first prize of £20 in the class of four-year-olds, beating a very good lot of young horses, including Mr. Pease's Silas Marner, placed third; Mr. Bruere's Firebrand, Mr. Maynard's The Fawn, Mr. Johnson's Robin Hood, and Messrs. Norman's Radical, a very poor second, and more after the fashion of a harness-horse than a hunter. We spoke of Sprig of Nobility, on seeing him here, as & flashy, gentlemanly horse, if anything rather soft-looking;" and Mr. Cookson, one of the judges, said he "had very light action, and showed much blood for a big horse; but he was bigger than I liked, though our judgment was confirmed at Middlesborough in the same season, where the class was superior to that of the Royal." There was no mistake over the placing of the four-year olds at Newcastle, and it would have been well if some of the other awards-as for instance The Laughing Stock and Gamester decision-had been equally satisfactory. At the Howden Show of the Yorkshire Society, in the September following, Sprig of Nobility was merely commended in the fouryear-old class, of which we thus spoke at the time: "The four-year-old hunting class was one of the best of the day, including Silas Marner, a very good-looking, compact weight-carrier, with nice head and neck, good shoulders, middle, and powerfully-made quarters, big thighs and arms, on a short leg; the gentlemanly Sprig of Nobility, made up as level as a die, a very beautiful horse, but with hocks small for his top; a very useful, but not handsome, lengthy, powerful, short-legged brown, by St. Clare; Highwayman, a neat but light brown, with a nice head and neck, and the shoulder well laid back, and small but clean limbs, up to about 12 stone, and a winner at Driffield; and a very shortnecked, bad-shouldered chesnut buggy horse, with white legs by Great