SALMON. 21 



them in the pond, and, accordingly, in May 1836, they were 

 transmuted into Smolts or Salmon-fry, commonly so called. 

 At this time they measured six and a half inches in length, 

 their colour on the back a beautiful deep blue, the sides 

 bright and silvery, the dorsal, caudal, and especially the pec- 

 toral fins, tipped with black, the abdomen, ventral, and anal 

 fins white. The undoubted Smolts of the river were at this 

 time descending sea-wards, and the most careful comparison 

 of these with those in my possession did not elicit the slight- 

 est difference between the two. Mine had completed their 

 second year, and is it likely that those in the river which so 

 identically resembled them, were only a few weeks old ? 



" The minute but active fish above alluded to, is at that 

 early period to be no where found except in those streams 

 (or their immediate vicinity) in which the old Salmon had 

 deposited their spawn during the preceding winter. Early in 

 April 1835, I discovered them in one of these streams, but 

 so young and weak, owing to their very recent emergence 

 from the spawning-bed, as to be unable to struggle with the 

 current where it flowed with any strength or rapidity. They 

 therefore betook themselves to the gentler eddies, and fre- 

 quently into the small hollows produced in the shingle by 

 the hoofs of horses which had passed the ford. In these 

 comparatively quiet places, and covered by a slight current of 

 a few inches in depth, they continued with their little tails 

 in constant motion, till such time as my near approach was 

 perceived, when they immediately darted beneath the stones. 

 They remain with these habits, and in the situations just 

 mentioned, during the months of April, May, and even 

 June ; but as they increase in size and strength, they scatter 

 themselves all over the shallower parts of the river, especially 

 wherever the bottom is composed of fine gravel. They con- 

 tinue, in truth, comparatively unobserved throughout the 

 whole of the first summer, being seldom taken by the angler 



