86 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



In October, 1886, 1 received from Mr. Willis-Bund a fish 5| inclies long taken in 

 the Teme, and which the fishermen asserted was a scagger, and neither a samlet nor 



after being removed from the parent fish, the eggs hatched. On May 24th, or twenty- seven days 

 after being hatched, the young had absorbed the yelk-sac ; they died a few days subsequently, 

 caused, he su}iposed, from a deposition of mud, the same result having been more than once 

 produced when the pond had not been sufficiently embedded with graved. 



The next experiment was conducted with more success. The parent fish were similarly 

 captured on January '27th, 1837, subsequently killed, and their skins preserved. The male when 

 taken weighed 16 lb., and the female 8 lb. On May 7th, or 101 days after removal from the 

 parent fish, the eggs hatched. He gave illustrations life size, from examples ten days old, 

 forty-eight days, two months, and six months of age, while no marked difference could be 

 observed between them and the par in the river of a corresjionding age. 



Shaw stated, Transactions of Royal Society of Edinhuryh, xiv, p. 561, that in January, 1837, he 

 took a female salmon, weighing 14 lb., from the spawning-bed, from whence he also took a male 

 par weighing one and a half ounce, with the milt of which he impregnated a quantity of her ova 

 and placed it in a stream connected with a pond, where, to his great astonishment, the iwocess 

 succeeded in every respect as it had done with that which had been impregnated by the adult 

 male salmon, and exhibited, from the first visible appearance of the embryo fish, up to their 

 assuming their migratory dress, the utmost health and vigour. In January, 1888, he took another 

 female salmon weighing 14 lb. and two male pars from the same spawning-bed and impregnated 

 two lots of their ova with the milt from the two pars, and afterwards placed them in two different 

 streams enclosed in boxes, ojien at the top, temperature 45°. In December, 1838, he took a 

 female salmon from the river weighing 11 lb., and four male pars from the same spawning-bed. 

 After impregnating four different lots of ova, one lot to each individual par, he placed the four 

 pars in a pond, where they remained until the following May, at which period they assumed the 

 migratory dress. The ova were placed in streams to which no other fish had access, and where 

 they became mature in a similarly progressive manner to those already detailed, thus clearly 

 demonstrating that the young salmon of 18 months old, while yet in the par or early state, 

 actually performs the duties of a male parent before quitting the river. While the males of the 

 three several broods which occupied ponds No. 1, 2, 3 continued in a breeding state, which lasted 

 throughout the whole of the winter of 1838-39, he impregnated the ova of three adult female 

 salmon from the river with the milt of a male taken from each of the three ponds, and the whole 

 of these ova matured. This, he deemed at once, removed any doubt which may have been 

 entertained regarding the constitutional strength of individuals reared under such circumstances. 



At Stormontfield, in the season of 1857 (November or December), milt from a par was used to 

 fertilize the ova of a 16 lb. salmon, and in 1858 they had fry of salmon, fry of grilse and salmon, 

 fry of grilse, and the fry of the salmon and par. " On the closest inspection, no difference was 

 perceptible either in the form, colour, size, or markings of any of these fish. There were larger 

 and smaller fry to be seen amongst all these hatchings " (Brown, Stormontfield Exjicriments, p. 74). 



Parnell, Fishes of the District of the Forth, 1838, page 298, gave the Salmo sahnidus, or par, 

 as a distinct species, observing " that if we compare a young salmon of eight inches in length with 

 a j^ar of equal size, both taken from the same river in the month of May, we shall find them to 

 differ in the following respects : the form of the salmon is long and narrow, the snout pointed, and 

 the caudal fin acutely forked : the body of the 2^ar is thick and clumsy, the snout broad and 

 blunt, and the caudal fin much less forked. The opercular of the salmon is beautifully rounded 

 at its ijosterior margin, with the basal line of union with the sub-operculum much curved : in the 

 par this i^art is rather produced, with the line of union nearly straight. In the salmon the 

 maxillary is short and narrow, in thej'w it is longer and broader, particularly at the posterior free 

 extremity. The teeth of the salmon are long and fine, when recent easily bent: those of the jJar 

 are shorter and stouter, and resist much greater pressure. In the salmon the pectoral fin is 

 short, not quite one-seventh part the length of the whole fish, with the fourth ray the longest: the 

 same fin in the 2^ar is very long, not quite one- sixth part the length of the whole fish, with the 

 fifth ray longest, giving a form to the fin totally different from that of the salmon. The 

 pectoral, dorsal, and caudal fin in the salmon are black : those fins in the j^ar are dusky. The 

 fiesli of the salmon is delicate and pinkish, the bones soft, and the coats of the stomach thin and 

 tender : the flesh of the j^ja;- is white and firm, the bones stout and hard, and the coats of the 

 stomach and intestines thick and tough." " It is generally supposed that those small fish, from 

 four to five inches in length, which are found so i^lentiful in many rivers during the autumn 

 months, and which are marked on the sides with from ten to eleven transverse dusky bands, and 

 a black spot on each gill-cover, are either all pars or the young of the salmon. But from a 

 minute examination of several hundred of these fish, taken in various rivers in England and 

 Scotland, I am induced to consider them as not all of one sjiecies, but the J'oung of various 

 species or varieties of migrating trout, in company with the young of the salmon, with the 

 Salmo salnndns or jiar, andwith different varieties of the common fresh-water trout ; all of which 

 have received the names of Hcppers, Brandlings, Samlets, Fingerlings, GrareUings, Lasjrriiigs, 

 Skirlings, and Sjxniings." " There are still great doubts as to the par being a migratory 

 species, since no instance has been recorded of its capture in the sea. Nor does it appear to 

 me to be so common a fish as is generally considered." 



Mr. Jenkins of Hereford (January 29th, 1840), observed that " the lasprings or samlets seen 

 in the autumn in the Wye, are the young of the salmon, but some think they are hybrids." 



Mr. Young of Invershin, Book of Salmon, 1850, observed that Shaw's calculations on the age 



