SALMONID^. 77 



Mr. Youl and Mr. Wilson first attempted the introduction of salmon and trout 

 into Australasia in 1860, the experiment failed as did also that tried in 1862. 

 Dr. Davy in his experiments upon salmon eggs ascertained that when exposed to 

 dry air at the ordinary temperature they rapidly died ; that their vitality was as 

 well preserved in moist air as in water, while ova placed in ice were not affected 

 unless lowered many degrees below the freezing-point. If the water in which the 

 eggs were, was heated to 80 or 82 Fah., they could stand it with impunity for a 

 moderate period, but 84 or 85 was fatal. 



Sir J. Richardson (Yarrell, Brit. Fish. ed. 3, 1859, p. 215) remarked, " Dr. 

 Davy's observations lead one to believe that the attempts which are making to 

 transfer salmon and trout from England to Tasmania and New Zealand, wi 11 not 

 succeed, unless the temperature of the water be kept down by ice during the 

 passage through warm latitudes." Mr. Youl, however, was the first person who 

 successfully employed ice for the purpose of conveying trout and salmon ova through 

 the tropics. It would appear that some trout ova which he had placed amongst 

 moss in a deal box and imbedded in the ice room on board " The Beautiful Star," 

 lived from March 4th to May 17th when the ice failed. Further investigations 

 showed that for the preservation of the vitality of salmon ova a continuous stream 

 of water is not essential : that partial deprivation of air is not fatal, while light is 

 not necessary.* 



Life history. The young salmon, generally known as a parrf or pink, and 

 hatched out early in the year, is adoraed with brilliant trout-like colours, as have 

 been already described (page 68). These young fish reside two years (or in 

 rare instances one) in our rivers, and migrate in the succeeding or third spring, 

 to the sea as smolts. Many discussions have arisen as to whether a parr is or is 

 not the young of the salmon, or even a hybrid between it and the trout, and 

 though there exists a strong family resemblance between the young of the various 

 species of salmonida?, most of the fresh water or anadromous forms passing 

 through a parr stage, still it has been abundantly proved that the young salmon 

 itself invariably commences life as a parr. It was long since pointed out that 

 in rivers destitute of salmon there were no parrs : while if salmon existed 

 parrs were present. This point has now been most conclusively decided by 

 hatching out eggs taken direct from the salmon and artificially propagated 

 and the young reared, the result being parrs as may be seen at the present 

 day in any fish-breeding establishment. It has also been shown that similar 

 parr, passing through the same subsequent changes and gi'owing at about 

 the same rate, were raised by the artificially propagated eggs of smolts and 

 salmon : grilse and salmon : pure grilse : or pure salmon. At the same establish- 

 ment a suggestion which had been advanced that the anomaly of some parrs 

 migrating after one year the remainder after two seasons was due to the first being 

 the produce of salmon and the second of grilse was refuted. The whole of the 

 fry, numbering about 200,000, were the produce of 19 male and 31 female salmon 

 spawned in 1859, some remained as parr while others migrated as smolts. 

 Although about two centuries since it was shown that parr were young salmon, 

 such was not generally admitted until Mr. Shaw, in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, furnished the public with a trustworthy account of the 

 changes occurring in the young salmon. He took seven small ones (parrs) on 

 July 17th, 1833, and placed them in a pond supplied by a stream of wholesome 

 water : they throve until April 1834, when a change came over their external 

 character they having assumed the state of salmon smolts. In March, 1835, the 

 same observer transferred twelve parrs, each about six inches long, from the river 

 to a pond, and they, by the end of April, assumed the smolt stage. From the 

 foregoing he concluded that the larger parr present in the rivers in autumn, winter, 

 and early spring is in reality the actual salmon fry advancing to the conclusion 

 of its second year, and that the smaller parr, termed in some places, " summer 



* Detailed information may be found in Fish Culture, by Mr. Francis Francis, and Fish 

 Hatching, by the late Frank Buckland ; also in several other works. 



f Jardine considered " the parr not only distinct, but one of the best and most constantly marked 

 species we have " (Jamieson's Phil. Journal, 1835). 



