SALMON— LIFE HISTORY OF PAR. * 85 



As, however, tlie changes these fish undergo 'will he fully alluded to under 

 the head of salmon bred in fresh waters, and which have not descended to the sea 

 such will not be described in this place. 



Yarrell, History of British Fishes, Edition 1, 1836, i, p. 15, observed of the fry of the 

 various species of Salmonidcn that " it is this similarity in marking and appearance of tlie fry 

 whicli has caused the difficulty in distinguishing between the various species when so young ; and 

 experimenters, believing they had marked young par only, have been surprised to find some of 

 their marked fish return as grilse, young bull trout, or whitling, salmon trout, river trout, and 

 true par." " The laspring of some rivers is the young of the true salmon, but in others, as I know 

 from having had specimens sent me, tlie laspring is really a par." At page 42 he gives a good 

 figure of the par, and remarked " that this little fish, one of the smallest of the British Salmonidts, 

 has given rise to more discussion than any other species of the genus." Continuing that it has 

 frequently been insisted upon as the young of the salmon, and local regulations have as generally 

 been invoked for its preservation. That the par is not the j'oung of the salmon, or indeed of any 

 other of the larger species of Salmoniila:, as still considered by some, is sufficiently obvious from 

 the circumstance that pars by hundreds may be taken in the rivers all the summer, long after the 

 fry of the year of the larger migratory species have gone down to the sea : and the greater part 

 of those pars, taken even in autumn, do not exceed five inches in length, when no example of the 

 young of the salmon can be found under sixteen or eighteen inches, and the young of the bull 

 trout and salmon trout are large in proportion." He also alluded to an opinion which prevailed 

 that pars were hybrids, and all of them males. Heysham found 196 females out of 395. Yarrell 

 likewise remarked the "skegger" of the Thames is the par or samlet. 



Eussel stated that about ten years before what w'ere really the first decisive experiments (1824 

 or 1825) were made, Mr. Scrope (Days and Niphts of Salmon Fishing) wrote a long letter to the Eight 

 Hon. T. F. Kennedy, m.p., in which the theory or rather tact that the par is the young of the 

 salmon was stated with positiveness and argued with great clearness and force. Also " the 

 finding in spring of the distinctive marks of the par under the silver scales of the smolt." About 

 eight years later, and still previous to the decisive experiments, he continued, " James Hogg, the 

 Ettrick Shepherd, gave the world some very good reasons of his own for holding the par to be 

 young of the salmon, reasons founded on observation and experience, partly on his having observed 

 the gradual assumption of the migratory dress by the par in the spring months, partly on his 

 having caught a grilse fish which he had marked when par, or when in their transition-state from 

 par to smolt." Previously he had held a different opinion, believing the par not to be the young 

 of the salmon, but was convinced to the contrary by Mr. Scrope. 



Shaw, Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1836, p. 99, communicated certain experiments 

 which he instituted on the par as to what its relations really were, for he had always believed it 

 to be the young of the salmon. On July 11th, 1833, he caught seven pars, and put them into a 

 pond supplied with a stream of wholesome water. In April, 1834, they became of a beautiful blue 

 on the back, and a delicate silvery appearance on the sides, while the scales came readily off on 

 their being handled. In March, 1835, he took twelve more pars, averaging six inches each in 

 length from the river, which assumed the smolt dress in April, 1835, which species he concluded 

 these fish to be. " The salmon fry has hitherto been erroneously supposed to grow to the size of 

 six or eight inches in as many weeks, and to take its departure tor the sea after this brief period 

 has elapsed. The rapidity with which the par of two years old assumes the appearance of the 

 salmon-fry has led to this error, the par taking about the same time to perfect its new dress, as 

 the young salmon is supposed to take in attaining the growth at which it has arrived at the period 

 of its migration." In May, 1834, he caught some young about one inch in length with a gauze 

 net, and put them into two separate ponds provided with a proper supply of running water. In 

 May, 1835, they averaged 3^ inches long, and corresponded to the par of the river, and in the 

 second week of that month assumed the smolt livery and measured about 6^ inches in length 

 each. On January 10th, 1836, he saw a female salmon about 16 lb. weight, and two males of at 

 least 25 lb. engaged in depositing their spawn, and three days subsequently he obtained ova 

 from the spot where he had observed these fishes, and which ova he placed in gravel under a 

 stream of pure spring water. On April 8th he found they had hatched, and after 140 days more 

 corresponded with the little fishes he had taken away in May, 1834. 



Mr. Shaw read a paper before the lioyal Society of Edinhurgh, December 18th, 1837, in 

 which he observed that his former paper on ova taken from the Nith had been objected to as 

 there was not sufficient evidence that these were the eggs of the salmon, the same stream being 

 accessible to other fish. So he repeated his former experiments, x)reserviug the skins of the 

 parent fish, also lajnng his experimental basins dry, not only for the purpose of removing any 

 young fish which might remain, but likewise to fit them up on such a principle as would exclude 

 the possibility of confusion, either from the overflowing of the ponds themselves, or from the 

 flooding of the river Nith, on the banks of which they were situated. On January 4th, 1837, he 

 captured a pair of salmon engaged in depositing their spawn. Before proceeding to take the fish 

 he formed a small trench in the shingle at the edge of the river, through which he directed a 

 small stream of water two inches deep. At the end of this trench he placed an earthenware basin 

 of considerable size for the purpose of ultimately receiving the ova. Having drawn the fish 

 ashore he placed the female, still alive, in the trench, and pressed from the body a quantity of 

 the ova. Then the milt was similarly obtained from the male, thoroughly impregnating the 

 eggs. The eggs were now transferred to the earthenware basin, and deposited in a stream 

 coimeoted with a pond previously formed for its reception. On the 28th of April, or 114 days 



