SALMON. 85 



It has long been a disputed point as to whether the parr is the young- of Sabno salar or a 

 distinct species. There are, I believe, some people who still persistently maintain that the 

 parr is not the young of the Salmon, but a distinct species, notwithstanding the evidence 

 derived from the careful experiments of Mr. John Shaw, of Drumlanrig, in the years 1833-6, 

 who proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the parr was a young Salmon. This gentleman, 

 in a valuable memoir, before me as I write, succeeded in tracing the life history of the Salmon 

 from the ^<g^ up to its smolt stage of two years' growth. 



The diameter of the ovum of a Salmon is one fourth of an inch ; according to Mr. F. 

 Buckland every female Salmon carries as a rule, about nine hundred eggs to a pound of her 

 weight; the spawning time is In November and December; "the female throws herself on her 

 side, and while In that position, by the rapid action of her tail, she digs a receptacle In the 

 ground for her ova, a portion of which she deposits, and again turning upon her side, she covers 

 it up by a renewed action of the tail — thus alternately digging, depositing and covering ova, 

 until the process is completed by the laying of the whole mass, an occupation which generally 

 occupies three or four days." — (Experimental Observatiotis on the Development and Growth of Sal- 

 111071 Fry, p. 565.) The only part the male fish performs, beyond the mere sexual function, 

 consists in the unwearied vigilance which he exhibits in protecting the spawning-bed from the 

 intrusion of rival males, all of which he assiduously endeavours to expel. The hatching period 

 lasts from ninety to one hundred and thirty days, according as the temperature of the water 

 facilitates or retards the development of the spawn. In a temperature of 40° the fish has been 

 observed to be hatched the one hundred and eighth day after impregnation ; when the 

 temperature did not exceed 33°, the hatching did not take place till one hundred and thirty- 

 one da3'S after impregnation, though in this case the temperature of the river during the last 

 forty days of that period had risen to an elevation of 60°. According to Mr. Shaw's experi- 

 ments the growth of the Salmon is as follows, though no doubt this growth is not the same 

 In all individuals, some growing faster than others. A young Salmon, with Its attached 

 umbilical sack of one day old. Is about seven eighths of an inch in length ; at two months 

 old It has attained the size of about one inch and three quarters, and bears many transverse 

 dark bars ; the little fish Is at this stage called a parr ; at four months of age the young 

 Salmon, or parr, is two Inches and three eighths long; at six months about three Inches; at 

 twelve months four Inches and a quarter; at eighteen months It Is nearly five inches and a 

 half, still bearing the parr marks ; at two years It attains the size of six inches, the parr 

 marks now disappearing, or being only faintly visible, and the fish assuming the characteristic 

 aspect of the smolt, commonly so called. In this latter's stage the young fish Is in colour and 

 form very like the parent Salmon ; It Is in this stage also that it rises most readily to an 

 artificial fly, and used to be caught by the angler in large quantities before the law interfered 

 with Its capture. 



The sexual development of the male is subject to variety, for In some cases young smolts 

 of seven or eight inches long have their milt fully developed, and attend the older fish on the 

 spawning beds. Mr. Shaw succeeded in impregnating Salmon-ova with the milt of the male 

 parr In several instances. With the young female smolt the case appears to be different, for 

 the female smolt does not mature her ova. "No parr," says Giinther, "has ever been found 

 with mature ova." "Some advocates for the opinion of the specific distinctness of the parr," 

 he adds, "pretend Indeed to have found female parrs. Those fish which were pointed out to 

 me as females were invariably specimens which had fed freely on the ova of their congeners, 

 and their stomachs had been regarded as the ovary! Some persons were so anxious to convince 

 me of the correctness of their opinion, that they sent me specimens with ova in the abdominal 

 cavity. On closer examination these fishes turned out to be Immature male specimens, the 

 ova having been introduced by a cut Into the abdomen, said to have been made to admit 

 the spirit." — (Catalogue, vl. p. 9, note.) It may, of course, be asked, why may not the females 



