but another species. In sucL rivers as the Teivi, where several 

 migratory species of the salmon are found, those who know little 

 of Ichthyology, may easily be deceived, in attempting to identify 

 the different kinds. Let them visit your Herefordshire Wye, or 

 the upper part of Bandon river, in the county of Cork, and they 

 will have less to distract their attention ; for the salmon is the 

 only one of the migratory salmonidae, that regularly visits those 

 waters. Whence then, the multitudes of lastsprings in the Wye, 

 and gravelings in the Bandon, if they be not young salmon. 

 Here comes the assertion, that they are a distinct and separate 

 species. 



Since the laws stamped on nature, by the Creator, are inflex- 

 ible, unswerving, and unerring, it results that a discovery in 

 natural history, must, if true, be equally invariable and inflexible, 

 and in harmony with the Creator's works, in that particular 

 division of the great laboratory ; else it is necessarily a misinter- 

 pretation of nature. If the fish of which we are speaking, be a 

 distinct species of the salmonidae, we are presented with that 

 Ichthyological anomaly, "that monster which the world ne'er 

 saw" — two species of the same genus, with precisely the same 

 anatomical structure. Scientifically, therefore, it is at once 

 pronounced not to be a separate species, or there would be some 

 structural distinction. Besides, at nearly two years old, they 

 have only attained a few inches in length ; and with rare excep- 

 tions, not three ounces in weight. In the whole range of nature, 

 we meet with no instance in which this tardy growth is exhibited, 

 where smallness is maturity. It is contrary to the law of nature. 

 .All creatures that have arrived at their full size, and are yet small, 

 have grown rapidly — a wise provision ; for such are destined to 

 a very brief existence ; with which, a protracted advance toward 

 the perfect stage, is inconsistent. The converse is equally true. 

 The slow growing races, whether of animate or inanimate nature, 

 are comparatively large and of long life. The slowly matured 

 oak, and the aloe, endure for centuries — the quickly-formed 

 mushroom, for hours. The elephant continues to grow for nearly 

 a quarter of a century — and lives long. The ephemera leaps 



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