SALMON. 41 



every instance absent, suggested the idea that the males were 

 probably present with the female Salmon at such seasons for 

 a sexual purpose. And to demonstrate the fact, I, in Ja- 

 nuary 1837, took a female Salmon weighing fourteen pounds 

 from the spawning bed, from whence I also took a male Parr 

 weighing one ounce and a half, with the milt of which I im- 

 pregnated a quantity of her ova, and placed it in the stream 

 of pond No. 2, where, to my great astonishment, the process 

 succeeded in every respect as it had done with that which had 

 been impregnated by the adult male Salmon, and exhibited, 

 from the first visible appearance of the embryo fish up to 

 their assuming the migratory dress, the utmost health and 

 vigour. The very extraordinary results of these experiments, 

 although made with the utmost possible care, induced me to 

 defer giving them publicity until I had repeatedly verified 

 the fact. I, therefore, removed this brood to another pond, 

 apart from all other fish, where they had an abundant supply 

 of insect food and wholesome water ; and again, early in the 

 following January (1838), I repeated the experiment by 

 taking another female Salmon, weighing fourteen pounds, and 

 two male Parrs from the same spawning bed, and impreg- 

 nated two lots of her ova with the milt from the two Parrs, 

 and afterwards placed them in two different streams, inclosed 

 in boxes open at the top, temperature 45. The extreme 

 severity of the weather which succeeded had, however, nearly 

 proved fatal to the whole. On the evening of the 8th of 

 January, the day on which I took the parents from the river, 

 the frost set in, and continued with such intensity for a suc- 

 cession of many weeks, that the wild fowl generally, and the 

 wild ducks in particular, suffered severe privations, and in 

 the course of their wanderings in search of food they unfortu- 

 nately stumbled on my boxes of ova, one lot of which they 

 wholly devoured, to the amount at least of five hundred. 

 My feelings of mortification and disappointment on the dis- 



