WHICH HAVE NEVER DESCENDED TO THE SEA. 453 



the fish could not be attributed to the colour of the vessel which held them, for on 

 being taken out they still retained the same brilliant colours " *. 



In the Brighton Aquarium about 20 small Salmon parr were received from Mr. 

 Berrin-ton, the Chairman of the Usk Board, and these were placed in fresh water, where 

 they soon began to feed and took to their tank. In the succeeding May, about eight months 

 after they had been received, most of them commenced to assume the smolt livery, but 

 four remained as parrs. Salt water was gradually introduced ; but this did not prove 

 fatal to the parrs, as it was feared it might, while the smolts became quite rampant with 

 pleasure as the water grew more and more salt, until at last no fresh water was left 

 and it became purely salt, Then the parrs, which had remained parrs up to this time, 

 be-an to assume the smolt livery, and the change is described as truly marvellous. They 

 ate five times as much as previously, were in incessant and rapid motion all day, and 

 their growth became perfectly astonishing f. 



Bertram remarked of the Stormontfield smolts, in 1861, "One fish which had been 

 detained for three years for the purpose of discovering whether the species will grow in 

 fresh water without being permitted to visit the sea, was found to be fully twice the size 

 of the largest smolt " J. 



The Duke of Buccleuch's gamekeeper at Bowhill was for some years in the practice 

 of putting a few smolts into a freshwater pond, and feeding them regularly with bullock's 

 liver He reported that the smolts which grew into Salmon throve for about three 

 years and then died, but that Bull-trout smolts kept in good condition for a longer 



period. . 



« Into a deserted stone-quarry near Coldstream, filled with rain-water, two smolts, about 

 3 inches long, were put by boys out of mere amusement. One of these grew into a 

 Salmon, which when 5 years old, weighing H lb., was caught and sent to Mr. Stoddart 

 of Kelso who had it boiled for dinner. He reported that it was not unpalatable. Ihe 

 other smolt grew into a Bull-trout and lived for seven years. It died during a very 

 severe winter when, on account of the water being frozen, it could not be fed " §. 



« Shaw has demonstrated, in the most conclusive manner, that those small Salmonoids 



which are generally called Parr, are the offspring of the Salmon, and that many males 



from 7 to 8 inches long have their sexual organs fully developed, and that their milt 



lias all the impregnating properties of the seminal fluid of a much older and larger fish. 



No Parr has ever been found with mature ova" ||. 



'"In the Exe, parr-marked fish (graveling or smolt so-called) have been taken with 

 ova actually exuding from the fish, on and previously to its being handled to remove the 

 hook Some were sent to me by Mr. England, fishing in the Exe, some four years since, 

 and preserved in glycerine, most certainly as a novelty, since which many such cases 

 have come before me " (Frank Gosden, < Land and Water '). 



I think I can adduce conclusive evidence so as to remove any doubt respecting smolts 

 m-ilse giving ova without descending to the sea, as they have done so in the 



or gJ 



* Brown, ' Stormontfield Experiments,' pp. 61, 62. 



t Francis Francis, ' Field,' 1S79. t ' Harvest of the Sea,' p. 110. 



§ Extract from ' Eeport of Experimental Committee to Tweed Commissioners.' 



|| Giinther, ' Introduction to the Study of Fish,' 18S0, p. 639. 



