INTRODUCTORY xxiii 



the differences between the parr and the young 

 salmon. Those of us who have grown up since 

 Shaw's time can scarcely understand how the parr 

 could have been regarded as a distinct species, far 

 less the extraordinary controversy which the dis- 

 covery was the means of starting. Yet those early 

 disputes gave the stimulus needed for investigation 

 over a wider area. Since the earliest attempts at 

 salmon marking, at artificial culture, and the rearing 

 and crossing of different salmonids, as well as by the 

 study of the different runs of fish in our rivers, and 

 by the results of netting salmon on our coasts, a 

 body of information has slowly been accumulating. 

 Disjointed and very imperfect as this information 

 has undoubtedly been, it has nevertheless served to 

 indicate the lines along which more systematic infor- 

 mation should be sought. 



A signal endeavour to crystallise our views in 

 this particular was the publication of Mr. Willis 

 Bund's " Salmon Problems," a book which has un- 

 doubtedly done a great deal to advance the genuine 

 search after radical facts in the life of the salmon. 

 Since this book was penned the doings of the salmon 

 have been followed with greater precision, and the 

 fish has, as it were, been made to tell his own tale 

 to a greater extent. The reliable identification of fish 

 caught, set at liberty, and recaptured has been the 

 means, through the instrumentality of the Fishery 

 Board for Scotland and the Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries in Ireland, of providing us with an 

 amount of information as to migrations and increase 

 of weight hitherto unapproached. Investigations as 



