36 Report, 8;c. 



pounds, and continues it is believed to increase every time he pays 

 his annual visit to his salt water domain. The pi'ecise rate of 

 increase, however, after his first year has not been ascertained. 



We have now traced the salmon's progress through his succes- 

 sive ages. Being an inferior animal he possesses five instead of 

 seven. They are, it will be remembered, first, his tadpole stage, 

 with the umbilical vesicle; second, his "parr" stage, with golden 

 brown and spotted sides; third, his "young swell" stage, with 

 silvery sides, and still quite small; fourth, his "grilse" stage, a 

 thorough salmon all but his tail ; fifth and last, his full grown stage, 

 in which he but awaits another, that of salmon cutlets, or " boiled, 

 with cucumber." 



What the adult salmon's food consists of is still, I believe, a 

 bone of contention : it is tolerably clear, however, that he has a 

 partiality for flies and worms, and perhaps for small fry generally. 

 The young fish, in its step-child state, in an artificial hatching 

 apparatus is fed principally with biscuit crumbs, or yolk of hard 

 boiled egg. 



With regard to the subject of salmon generally, the short- 

 sighted ignorance which caused the destruction of so many of the 

 fry is now greatly diminished. It is scarcely an exaggeration to 

 say that millions of these little fish have been netted and eaten as 

 sprats ! This waste in nature's commissiariat is now decidedly on 

 the decrease. And as we all know vigorous measures are being 

 taken everywhere to ensure not only the breeding of the little fish, 

 but also the fair treatment of the adult salmon. Let us hope that 

 these measures will meet with every possible success. 



It now remains for me only to thank the Scientific Society for 

 their kind attention to what is I fear anything but a scientific paper ; 

 and to make my acknowledgements both to my friend the Keeper 

 of the Fish House in the Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent's 

 Park, and (more especially) to Mr. Frank Buckland's interesting 

 pamphlet on Salmon Hatching, from which many, if not all, of my 

 facts are derived. 



May \Ath, 1866. 



On Monday, May 14th, an extraordinary Meeting (being the 

 eleventh) was held at the Rev. F. W. Farrar's house, when the 

 Rev. T. A. Preston, President, and Messrs. A. C. Almack and \V. 



