888 



SCANDINAVIAN FISIIKS. 



i-eturned in the Ix^-giiiniiig of July, about six weeks 

 after theii- departure, having attained in the sea a weight 

 of 1',, kilo; and at the end of -luly others caine back 

 which had grown to a weight of nearly 4^/^ kilo". 

 These expei'iinents, liowever. wei'e not carried out with 

 sufficient precautions tcj ren(k'r the results convincing''. 

 The growth of older S.alnion is better known, and, 

 though not so rapid, is still considerable. In 1859 the 

 Duke of Athol marked three Salmon, weighing respec- 

 tively lU, 11",, and 12'/, lbs. (4' ,— 5% kilo), then 

 on their way to the sea, and took them again six months 

 afterwards, as they Avere returning to fresh ^\•ater, \vhen 

 their weights were respectivclv 17, 18, and 19 lbs. 

 (7^/j — 8" 3 kilo.)'. Even if these Salmon could haxe 

 attained a In-eeding condition the same year, we have 

 other observations and circumstances which indicate that, 

 as a rule, their stay in the sea is longer. In February 

 and March Sckope marked several Kelts, weighing 4 

 lbs., from the River Shin in Sutlierland. and on taking 

 them again in June and .Tuly of the following year, 

 found them to weigh 9 — 14 lbs.' The Salmon which 

 descend into the Gulf of P>othnia from the rivers of 

 Xorrland and Finland, r(j\e from the said gulf down 

 to the south of the Baltic. As Gisler observed in 

 17.52'', as Stecksen remarked a century later^ and as 

 Malmgren quite recently ascertained', in the i-ivers of 

 Norrland and Finland Salmon are often caught which 

 iuive hooks in the jaws or stomach that they have torn 

 loose from long-lines in the south of the Baltic, even 

 on the Pomeranian coast. Journeys of such length pre- 

 sumably demand too long a time for a Salmon to de- 

 .scend early in spring into the lialtic, exhausted by the 

 exertions of the spawning, and to return the same year, 

 even at so late a season as June— August, and ascend 

 one of the rivers in breeding condition. To this we 

 should add that in the south of the Baltic line-tishing 

 for Salmon is practised chiefly, if not exclusivelj', in 

 autumn and winter, so that we have all reason to be- 

 lieve that these Salmon nuist have wintered in the 

 south. It is also cjuite jiossible that a sojourn in the 



brackish water of the Gulf of Botiuiia — as in the fresh 

 water of Lake Wener — can replace the year's stay in 

 fresh -water jjrevious to the spa^vning, required by the 

 so-called Winter Salmon of the Rhine. This is all the 

 more ])i'obable now that ]\Ir. Andeusson's experiments 

 ha\e shown (see Lonnbeko, Bih. Vet.-Akad. Handl., 

 Bd. 18 (1892), Afd. IV, No. 2, p. 10) that the gene- 

 rative organs can ripen, even if the tish be detained 

 in the Gulf of Bothnia while its fellows are preparing 

 to spawn in the rivers. 



The JilanMaxur thus pass the greater part of their 

 marine life and, at least in certain cases, a considerable 

 ])ortion of their life in fresh water, without the deve- 

 lopment necessary for breeding and without the cha- 

 racters that mark their spawning-dress. This is also 

 true of the Gidlaxar, with the single exception that, 

 for the most part, the}' live between the spawning pe- 

 riods in lakes. Yet it is no very simple task to ex- 

 plain all the names which these iishes have received 

 in different dresses and at different stages of sexual 

 maturity. 



SiEBOLi) advanced the opinion'' that the "Silver 

 Salmon" {SehwehforeUe, MaiforeUe) which are found in 

 the alpine regions of Central Europe, are persistently 

 sterile Grdlaxar (GnmdforeUe, LachsforeUe); and that 

 such individuals do occur, is also maintained by Fatio 

 in Switzerland. But Widegren showed that the cha- 

 racters of the former are inconstant, being more and 

 more approximated to the GraJax type as their sexual 

 organs are developed, and that they probably do attain 

 maturity, "though* several years may possibly elapse 

 before a sterile individual liecomes fertile and acquires 

 the characters typical of the generative power." On 

 closer examination of this so-called sterility, however, 

 we find' that it is attended with characters which are 

 a combination of />7««/.7ff.r and 6'ra/fl.i' characters — the 

 alleged difference between "fertile" and "sterile" Grd- 

 laxar is really the same as that between Grdlaxar and 

 Blanklaxar — and the same combination of characters 

 occurs, as is natural, in hybrids between Salmo salar 



" Brown, The Natural History of the Habiion etc., pp. 49 and 62. 

 * RnssEL, The Salmon, p. 54. 

 ' Day, 1. c, p. 95. 

 '' Vet.-Akad. Handl. 1752, p. 100. 

 ■■ In NiLssoN, Skand. Fii., Fisk-., p. 381. 



^ BoliuslSnsk Fiskeritidskrifl, H. 1 — .3, p. 50. In the Great Belt Fiedler (Nordisk Aarsskrift for Fiskeri, 1884. p. 24) found a 

 similar brass hook in the month of a Salmon caught in April south of Oorsoer. 

 ■' iSiisswasserfiiiche Mitteleuropas, p. 301. 

 '' Of vers. Vet.-Akad. Ffirh. 1864, p. 292. 

 ' Smitt, Riksm. Salmon, 1. c., pp. 83 etc. 



