Tishes, 521 



their spawning. Is it presumptuous to suppose that God, in 

 his providence, has implanted this instinct in the salmon for 

 our good ? that we might have a supply of excellent and 

 wholesome food ; which, without this, would be in a great 

 measure unattainable. Whether this is the true cause, and 

 the only one, I am unable to determine; but this is the effect 

 produced : and, in the absence of other reasons, it is, in my 

 opinion, one that ought to be admitted. 



Another reason why fish ascend rivers is, their impatience 

 of heat : I speak now more particularly about grayling. If 

 the weather is very hot at the end of May or the beginning 

 of June, the grayling in the Wharfe (they are almost unknown 

 in this part of the Ribble) ascend the mill-streams by hun- 

 dreds, and go up the wheel-races as far as they can get; and 

 stay there until the stoppage of the wheels (many a ducking 

 have I had in pursuit of them), when they are obliged to 

 beat a retreat : and this often proves a disastrous one to many 

 of them. The ascent of young eels by millions, and the 

 ascent of the flounder, are neither of them connected with the 

 propagation of their kind ; and, though I cannot say for what 

 purposes they do ascend, I am, I think, justified in doubting 

 assertions which seem to have nothing to support them but 

 the positive manner in which they are made. — Tl G. Cli- 

 theroe, Lancashire^ May 29. 1834. 



The Salmon Par is neither a Hybrid, nor a distinct Species, 

 of the Genus Salmo, but a State of the common Salmon, {p. 904}.) 

 — The author of Wild Sports (^the West says, of the par (as 

 I have noticed in p. 204.), that it has very much the appear- 

 ance of a hybrid between the salmon and the trout ; and (in 

 a note) that the natural history of this fish is doubtful. Some 

 conjecture that it is a hybrid between the salmon and the 

 trout, because it is only found in rivers frequented by salmon ; 

 others think it a cross [breed] between the sea [trout] and 

 river trout : and he speaks of this " hybridous diminutive '* 

 as if he thought one of these opinions correct. That the par 

 is not the result of a cross between the sea trout and river 

 trout is proved by the fact, that there are no sea trouts in the 

 Wharfe; the salmon, par (admitting it to be a distinct spe- 

 cies, which I do not), and trout being the only kinds of *Salmo 

 which are found in that river, at least where I am acquainted 

 with it. If the par be the result of a cross between the salmon 

 and the trout, what becomes of it in the spring ? and where 

 are all the par, which were so abundant in October, gone to 

 in April ? Did they migrate to the sea, the shoals would be 

 met with by somebody ; and, did they stay in the river, they 

 would be caught at one time or other. As, however, it is well 



