15 



it was little inferior to salmon in quality. The fourtli specimen 

 was a female rather over 2 lbs. in weight, which was sent to 

 Captain Montgomerie, of H.M.S. Blanche ; and the fifth and 

 last is the small specimen now on the table, also a female, 

 which differs slightly from the others, and the roe of which 

 is not nearly so far advanced. It has been frequently noticed 

 in English rivers that the first salmon trout which ascend from 

 the sea to the fresh water are almost invariably females, and 

 the whole five taken here being females would of itself furnish 

 strong presumptive evidence that they belong to a migratory 

 species. I must now revert once more to an earlier part of 

 the experiment. It will be remembered that the last of the 

 salmonoids, caught in the estuary of the Derwent in December, 

 1869, was sent to the Zoological Society of London for identi- 

 fication, because I believed that it had passed the smolt 

 stage, and had attained such maturity as to render its classi- 

 fication no longer a matter of uncertainty. That speci- 

 men Dr. Giinther at once declared was a true salmon (^S'. 

 salar). I have already given my reasons for believing that this 

 fish was spawned in this colony, and need not go over the 

 same ground again ; but will now refer to the two small speci- 

 mens sent to England by the same opportunity, and which 

 were hatched in September, 1869, from eggs deposited by 

 the salmon trout {8. truttd), which had been unnaturally 

 detained in fresh water. These two fish were parr about 

 8 months old, and in reference to them Dr. Giinther wrote 

 to Mr. Youl the following letter : — 



British Museum, 



14th November, 1870. 



My Dear Sir, — According to my promise I examined the two 

 small salmonoids about which I was in doubt the other day. 



I shall shortly state the result of my examination. Externally, 

 they agree with each other in every detail ; they have the large 

 scales on the tail of a saimon-parr (11-12 above the lateral line) ; 

 and they agree also in all the other external characters with 

 salmon parr, and are very different from young trout, or sea trout. 



Internally, they differ from each other : in one of the specimens 

 {yours) I find 54 pyloric appendages of the length usually seen in 

 salmon-parr. In the other specimen there are only 36, and they 

 are very short ; such a number I have hitherto found in the com- 

 mon river trout only. 



I remain, 



Yours very truly, 



(Signed) A. GUNTHER. 



To J. A. Youl, Esq. 

 "We will throw over the one specimen which has the short 

 number of pyloric appendages, and referring to the other 

 we can only arrive at one of three conclusions — 1st. — Salmon 

 and salmon trout up to the smolt stage cannot be dis- 



