second day.] PARR, OR SAMLET. 61 



possessing one or two spines more in the pectoral fin. 

 The parr has large blue or olive bluish marks on the 

 sides, as if they had been made by the impression of 

 the fingers of a hand ; and hence the fish is called in 

 some places fingerling. The river and sea trout seem 

 capable of changing permanently their places of 

 residence ; and sea trout appear often to become 

 river trout. In this case they lose their silvery 

 colour, and gain more spots ; and in their offspring 

 these changes are more distinct. Fish, likewise, 

 which are ill-fed remain small; and parrs are exceed- 

 ingly numerous in those rivers where they are found, 

 which are never separated from the sea by impassable 

 falls; from winch I think it possible that they are 

 produced by a cross between sea and river trout.* 



[* Since the researches of Mr. Shaw, published in 1837, naturalists, 

 with few exceptions, have come to the conclusion that the parr is the 

 young of the salmon, as is also the smelt, or smolt, — the one in its 

 earlier stage, having characteristic transverse marks — those which have 

 given rise to the designation of fingerling, perhaps of brandling, — the 

 other, after those marks have disappeared, and the fish has acquired the 

 uniformity of silvery colouring of the salmon, preparatory to its quitting 

 its native stream for the sea. In relation to the fresh-water parr 

 compared with the salt-water salmon, there are some circumstances 

 which are remarkable, and which might well lead to the conclusion 

 that the parr is distinct from the salmon. The parr, whilst in fresh 

 water, grows slowly, the young salmon, as soon as it enters the sea, 

 very rapidly, as has been proved by the observations of Mr. Young, 

 but though growing slowly in fresh water, the parr feeds well and is in 

 good condition, — using the varied food of the common trout — flies, 

 worms, larvae, fresh-water shell-fish, and squillae — as if a distinct 



