10 



in tho lakes and stroams of England, Wales, and Scotland. lie had also 

 frequently compared the young of the difl'ercnt varieties with each other 

 and could speak with confidence in tho matter. lie had not the slightest 

 doubt that tho specimen now before them (caught Dec, 1869) was a true 

 salmon, and a fine and well-grown fish. He would say it had been about 

 eight weeks at sea — was assuming the grilse condition, and would in the 

 course of the autumn have proceeded up the river to spawn. As to tho 

 fish sent home (of which an exact counterpart was said to be before the 

 meeting) he could not in any way agree with Dr. Giinther's hypothesis 

 that it might be a stunted or abortive individual, incapable of performing 

 the functions of reproduction. In the case of a young salmon in one of 

 the Welsh brooks, which had been accidentally debarred from proceeding 

 to sea, he had had the opportunity of noticing how these unnatural cir- 

 cumstances affected the appearance of the fish, and certainly its lanky and 

 big-headed figure was unmistakeable. There could, therefore, be no 

 difficulty in coming to a conclusion as to a fish being stunted or otherwise, 

 and no one could look on the comely and shapely specimen before them 

 and say it was imperfect in any respect. Even admitting, however, that 

 the fish sent home was, as Dr. Giinther admitted, a Salmo trutta, that fact 

 alone was confirmatory of the entire success of the experiment. They 

 knew, that of the Salmo trutta, about two hundred only were sent to sea, 

 whilst of the Salmo solar not less than four thousand five hundred were 

 liberated from the breeding ponds. If, therefore, several of the former 

 had been caught in the salt water, so full of health and vigour as to show 

 they were at home in these southern waters, a fortiori how much more 

 certain was it that the true salmon had escaped all their imaginary danger, 

 and in far greater numbers than the others had become thoroughly 

 acclimatised. 



Discussion of a conversational character ensued, in which the Rev. Dr. 

 Bleasdale, Mr. Buckland, Mr. Giblin, Mr. Stephens, and Judge Francis 

 took part. In reply to an observation by the latter to the effect that he 

 wished we had a fresh supply of salmon ova at command, in order to try 

 if in the event of the young fish being retained in the ponds, and never 

 allowed to proceed to sea, they could arrived at maturity, and prove 

 capable of perpetuating their species. 



Mr. Allpor t stated that in part II, of the proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 for 1868, there was a paper on the supposed arrest of the development of 

 the salmon when retained in the fresh water, by James Murie, M.D., 

 F.L.S., F.G.S., and from which paper it would appear that the experiment 

 had been virtually tried if it could be positively ascertained that the fish 

 experimented on were really specimens of salmon salar, but on this point 

 authorities differed. In the account of the experiment the most curious 

 circumstance noted was that in the summer of the second year several of 

 the fish assumed the silvery scales of the smolt, which scales were partially 

 lost in the autumn following, the parr markings becoming again distinctly 

 visible. This was repeated in the summer and autumn of the third year — 

 after the fourth year the fish came to a standstill as to growth, and at the 

 end of the fifth year only two remained, figures of which accompany the 

 paper referred to. These figures show them to have been large-headed 

 long-bodied fish with the parr markings distinctly visible, and bearing 

 little resemblance to a healthy smolt. 



A vote of thanks having been accorded to the donors of presentations, 

 the meeting terminated. 



