1 6 The Irish Naturalist. [Jan. 



A SUPPOSED LAND-LOCKED SALMON. 



BY R. F. SCHARFF, PH.D. 



On the 21st of November last Mr. R. J. Ussher, of Cappagh, 

 County Waterford, forwarded a fish to the Dublin Natural 

 History Museum, which was found on the iron grating of a 

 large sewer, through which flows the watercourse supplying 

 his premises. On examination the fish proved to be a Salmon 

 grilse twenty-three inches long and weighing 3lbs. 150Z. 

 The prominent hook on the lower jaw indicated that it was a 

 male fish in the breeding stage, and this was moreover proved 

 by the condition of the reproductive organs, which were full 

 of ripe milt. In colour it was trout-like, being covered with red 

 spots and bars, a condition which has been observed, accord- 

 ing to the late Dr. Day, in some of the land-locked Salmon 

 raised at Howietoun, in Scotland. The question arises there- 

 fore whether we have in Mr. Ussher's fish a case of a true wild 

 land-locked Salmon ? To those who may not have heard of 

 the interesting experiments which have been carried on at 

 Howietoun by Sir James Maitland, the idea of a land-locked 

 Salmon may seem an impossibility, but Dr. Day fully recog- 

 nised the trustworthiness of these experiments, and says in 

 his work on the British and Irish Salmonidse, (p. 103) *' They 

 afford incontestible evidence that a sojourn in salt water is 

 not necessar}^ in order for a grilse to develop eggs, and that 

 migratory Salmon are able to reproduce their kind in fresh 

 water without migrating to the sea, thus removing one great 

 obstacle which has stood in the way of ichthyologists admitting 

 that a land-locked Salmon can beget a race of Salmo salary 

 He moreover refers to the following Irish case (p. loi) : — 

 " Mr. Douglas Ogilby turned some Salmon smolts into 

 Lough Ash (County TjTone), which has no access to the sea, 

 in 1881. In April, 1883, he captured a grilse 14J inches long 

 in this lake, where salmon had not previously been seen, and 

 it was so distended with eggs that he considered it would have 

 spawned very shortly." This specimen, according to Dr. Day, 

 is now in the Natural History Museum, London, and is evi- 

 dently a true Salmo salar. These are instances of the artifi- 

 cial production of land-locked Salmon. But Dr. Day states 

 that Lake Wenern, in Sweden, is inhabited by a wild land- 

 Ipeked race of true Salmon, though Dr. GUnther does not 

 admit that the species is S. salar. 



