146 ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



latter gentleman was first in the field of literature on the 

 subject. I fear, however, it must be said, that the 

 publication of the result of his researches by no means 

 added to Mr. Shaw's fame as an accurate investigator. 

 About the year 1845 Mr. Shaw published, in pamphlet 

 form, his experimental observations on the development 

 and growth of salmon fry, from the exclusion of the ova 

 to the age of two years. Along with other statements, 

 he asserted that : — 



" The milt of a single male parr, whose weight may not exceed one 

 and a half ounce, is capable, when confined in a small stream, of efiectually 

 impregnating all the ova of a very large female salmon." 



Mr. Shaw likewise asserted that the parr, from the period 

 of their being hatched, to their migration, remained in 

 their native element for two years. The theory in the 

 minds of the public at this time, in contrast with the 

 above, was that tlie fry were parr and smolts within the 

 same year, and that their migration took place shortly 

 after they were hatched — a most absurd conclusion to 

 arrive at, and one which would, in frequent instances, 

 make migrants of the young fish while yet they were 

 attached to their umbilical sacs. It was in order to 

 rectify these erroneous conclusions that Mr. Young (at 

 first through the medium of the periodical press, then in 

 pamphlet form, and afterwards in the book already alluded 

 to,) gave to the public the result of his investigations. 

 He combated Mr. Shaw's male parr theory, by the 

 assertion that the duty referred to was only performed 

 by the more mature male grilse and salmon ; and upon 

 the migration question he showed that the smolts invari- 



