SALMON— LIFE HISTORY OF PAR. 87 



a smolt. It Avas a salmon par, rather thin for this time of year, and its generative 

 organs only half mature. In colour it was similar to many which I have seen from 



of the par "were wrong by one whole year: that tlicre were no salmon-fry to be found in 

 sahnon rivers with transverse bars at the age of eiglitcen months, that they became smolts at 

 the age of twelve months, and then migrated seawards, and not at the age of twenty-four 

 months according to Mr. Shaw's experimental tlieory " (p. 103). 



A Committee of the Tay Proprietors, on May '2nd, 1855, was hold at tlie Stormontfiold ponds, 

 " to consider the expediency of detaining the fry (which had been hatched Marcli 31st, 1854, and 

 were 3 or 4 in. in length) for another year or allowing them to depart. A comparison with 

 undoubted smolts of the river then descending seawards, with the fry in the jDonds, led to the 

 conclusion that tlie latter were not yet smolts and ought to be detained. Seventeen days after- 

 wards, viz., on the 19th May, a second meeting was held in consequence of the great numliers of 

 fry having in the interim assumed tlie migratory dress. On inspection, it was found tliat a 

 considerable portion were actual smolts, and the committee came to the determination to allow 

 them to depart. Accordingly, the sluice communicating with the Tay was opened and every 

 facility for egress afiforded. Contrary to expectation, none of the fry manifested any inclination 

 to leave the pond until the '24th May, when the larger and more mature of the smolts, after 

 having held themselves detached from the others for several days, went off in a body. A series 

 of similar emigrations took place, until fully one half of tlie fry had left the jioud, and descended 

 the sluice to the Tay. ... As the shoals successively left the pond, about one in every hundred 

 was marked by the abscision of the second dorsal fin. A greater number were marked on the '2Utli 

 of May, than on any other day, in all about 1200 or 1300. . . . Within two months of the date of 

 their liberation, viz., between the 29th of May and the 31st of July, twenty-two of the young fish 

 so marked when in the state of smolts on their way to the sea, have been in their returning 

 migration up the river, recaptured, and carefully examined. This fact may be considered as still 

 further established, by observing the increased weight, according to date, of the grilse caught and 

 examined : those taken first weighing 5 to 9^ lb., then increasing progressively to 7 and 8 lb., 

 whilst the one captured 31st July, weighed no less than 9i lb. In all these fish the wound 

 caused by marking was covered with skin, and in some a coating of scales had formed over the 

 part." — Report of Committee on Stonnontficld Ponds to the British Association, 1856, page 453. 



Thompson, Natural History of Ireland, 185G, being a reprint of many of his papers, written at 

 various dates, termed the par or gravelling, the young of the salmon (vol. iv, p. 143). " The 

 remark of Pennant, that ' the adipose fin is never tipped with red, nor is the edge of the anal 

 white,' can only be considered as generally correct. Two of my pars do, though very faintly, 

 show red on the adipose fin and one half of them have the base of the anal fin white." " The 

 three most striking characters of the par in contradistinction to the common trout, are — its tail 

 being more forked, its having only two or three spots on the opercula, and its want of dark-coloured 

 spots beneath the lateral-line. The pectoral fin of the par is larger, and the hinder portion of the 

 operculum less angular than in the common trout." 



Yarrell, British Fishes, 1841, ii, p. 14, etc., stated, "In order to prevent any mis- 

 conception of the terms employed, I shall speak of the young salmon of the first year as a pink ; 

 on its second year, until it goes to sea, as a smolt; in the autumn of the second year, as salmon- 

 peal or grilse ; and afterwards as adult salmon." "Mr. Shaw's experiments have gone very far 

 towards convincing many that the par, as a distinct species, does not exist" (p. 84). 



In the List of the Sj^ecimens of British Animals in the Collection of tlie British Museum, 

 "Fish " was written by Mr. Adam White in 1851, and at page 76 the par was given as the young 

 of the salmon and sea trouts. 



In the evidence given in the case of Galbraith I'ersns Shaw, held at Dunblaine in January, 

 1858, some river watchers deposed as follows : — "I have not seen a female par with spawn at all. 

 The male par will spawn, or, as I mean, have milt the first year of its existence." "I have seen 

 smolt go to sea in shoals. I won't swear that I ever saw par going down with them." "Par 

 sometimes remain more than a year in the river after they are hatched. They then become 

 smolts with a silvery skin, and in that state descend to the sea. When a smolt is stripped of its 

 scales, it is a par below" (James Mathie). "The marks of a par are finger marks. The number 

 of marks vary. I liave found eleven, and I have found sixteen. Tire pars thus observed were of 

 the same ages. The number of marks does not depend on the size. I never saw par with fewer 

 than eleven. I have never seen par taken from any river but the Tay." " The par of the trout 

 has the dead fin orange ; the rudder fin is white at the bottom and yellow at the top. They have 

 not so many par marks as the par. I do not think they have ever more than six marks" (Peter 

 Marshall). "There is not a pool or stream on the Teith where par are not (I confine myself to 

 smolts). Every pool at a certain time has par. It is my opinion that pars are the fry of salmon. 

 They assume the silvery scale when they go down the river. I have seen kelts taking on the 

 same silvery coat at repeated times, in the end of March and April, preparing to descend the 

 river; but before this I have seen them of a different colour" (James Greenhorn). 



Of the 1854 salmon hatching at Stormontfiold, Mr. Buist reported "that the first of the fry 

 that left the ponds as smolts in 1855 was on the 19th of May ; the last on the 7th of June. No 

 more left that year. The first of the same brood which remained as par all last season assumed 

 the smolt scales in August, 1856. The first division went off on the 28th of April, and the last on 

 the 26th of May. In both years they went off daily in divisions from the first to the last day. 

 About 1300 were marked in 1855, and several returned, as stated in my report. The number 

 marked in 1856 was 300 with rings, and 800 with cuts in the tail. Taking one in each hundred 



