178 GROWTH OF SALMON. 



freedom ! Besides which, the more rapid growth 

 of the salmon is admitted to take place in the salt 

 water, which Mr. Shaw's fry could never taste. 

 How he gets at the fact that the fry " do not go 

 down to the sea till they are more than a twelve- 

 month old at the least," I cannot understand : 

 (his could not !) for thus much we know, that 

 during April and May, the fry may be seen in 

 the river by myriads ; that their journey down- 

 wards has been traced, as it were, from day to 

 day at that period ; that bushels are destroyed 

 in mill-races on their way towards the sea, and 

 dozens upon dozens every day, for a month or 

 six weeks, by angling ; and that before June they 

 totally disappear, and nothing more is seen of 

 them or the like till the following year. Even 

 assuming, for argument sake, the par we meet 

 with in the autumn, to be young salmon, we never 

 see shoals of these or any fish, small or large, 

 after June ; yet if the fry remain for a year in the 

 river, still congregating, as we know them to do 

 in the early months, in such countless numbers, 

 surely something would be seen of them at a later 

 period. But though many have looked for them, 

 nothing is found in the river, during the autumn, 

 except a few of what we call '* par," and which 

 we never take much above or under five or six 

 inches in length. 



Herb. — But Mr. Shaw says, that these par are 



