SALMONID.E. 



during that season. But when the two-year-olds have dis- 

 appeared (as Smolts) in spring, these smaller fishes, now 

 entering their second year, become bolder and more apparent, 

 and now constitute the May and summer Parr of anglers. 

 But their timid habits during the first few months of their 

 existence, and their consequent concealment in the shingle, 

 greatly screen them from observation during that period, and 

 have led to the erroneous belief, that the silvery Smolts were 

 the actual produce of the season, and were only a few weeks 

 old. It certainly seems singular that it should never have 

 occurred to any intelligent angler to inquire what had become 

 of the older generation of Parr, that is of the comparatively 

 large individuals which he might have captured late in au- 

 tumn and in earliest spring, but none of which he can detect 

 after the departure of the so-called Smolts. If the two are 

 not identical, how does it happen that the one so constantly 

 disappears simultaneously with the other ? Yet no one 

 alleges that he has ever seen Parr, as such, performing their 

 migration towards the sea. They cannot do so, because they 

 have been previously converted into Smolts. 



" I shall here allude briefly to three different occasions on 

 which I have had an opportunity of witnessing the first mi- 

 gration of Smolts or converted Parr, that is, their descent in 

 small shoals towards the sea. The first of these was in the 

 first week of May, 1831. I was able deliberately to inspect 

 them as the several shoals arrived behind the sluices of a 

 salmon-cruive, and while they yet remained in the water, and 

 were swimming in a particular direction, indistinct transverse 

 lateral bars might still be seen, but as they changed their 

 position, these became as it were lost in the silvery lustre. 

 I also examined many of them in the hand, and could there 

 also, by holding them at a certain angle in relation to the 

 eye, produce the barred appearance, but when the fish were 

 held with their broad side directly opposed to view, the cha- 



