text:  Mr Young's first experiments were commenced as far back as 1836 and were originally undertaken with a view to show whether the salmon of each particular river after descending to the sea returned again to their original spawning-beds or whether as some supposed the main body returning coastwards from their feeding grounds in more distant parts of the ocean and advancing along our island shores were merely thrown into or induced to enter estuaries and rivers by accidental circumstances; and that the numbers obtained in these latter localities thus depended mainly on wind and weather or other physical conditions being suitable to their upward progress at the time of their nearing the mouths of the fresher waters