450 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [DeC. 



their breeding takes place rather in alternate years, or at least not 

 in successive years. The facts on which this inference is founded, 

 are, that in the instance of each of the fishes above named, a num. 

 ber of them are met with which have their ovaries and testes so 

 small as to preclude the idea of their spawning during the season, 

 the ova in the one being merely granules, the testes in the other 

 little more than slender cords or threads. As regards the salmon 

 and the charr, it is admitted by experienced fishermen that what 

 they call " barren fish" are taken at the same times as those of 

 the sea-trout and of the common trout. Of the last it is re- 

 markable that in the Rathay, a tributary of Windermere, this 

 fish, even in the spawning-month, and throughout the year, is found 

 in good condition, its testes and ovaries little developed. I have 

 numerous notes to this effect. I shall give only one. " October 

 25th, of four trout from the river in flood, two were males, two 

 were females ; they were beautiful silvery fish ; their ovaries and 

 milts very small." The breeding-fish, it may be inferred, at the 

 breeding-season quit the main stream and ascend the smaller ones. 

 The peculiarity of the trout being always in season in this river 

 may be owing to this circumstance, and to another, that it flows 

 out of one lake into another, and is consequently throughout the 

 year nearly of the same temperature, and so favorable to the pro- 

 duction of such food as is required to keep the trout in the 

 condition mentioned. I shall give only one note from my note- 

 book relating to the sea- trout. "On the 11th of September, about 

 eighty sea-trout were taken in an estuary of the Lews, in one 

 haul of the net. The largest weighed about four pounds and a 

 half. About one-half of the whole number were called barren fish, 

 their milts and roes being so very small as to preclude the idea of 

 their breeding that season." Now, as it seems improbable that so 

 large a proportion should be really barren, the other conclusion that 

 they were in a fallow state for the season, seems, I cannot but think, 

 most reasonable. To have strict proof, in would be necessary that 

 a special enquiry should be instituted, and that fish should be 

 marked after the manner of those on which observations have been 

 made to determine the rate of growth of the young salmon. The 

 points of difference in nearly allied species, such as the salmonidae, 

 are an interesting subject for enquiry ; they are to be witnessed, 

 not only in certain qualities of organization, but also in ratio of 

 growth, and, as we have seen, of generative power, and likewise in 

 habits of feeding and the eff'ects of atmospheric influences. The 



