SALMON OF NOVA SCOTIA—GILPIN. 39 
land, seldom frozen on the toilsome passage to and from the sea, 
as some believe that the Lake Ontario fish have to perform. We 
must immediately admit that however valuable all these facts 
and personal observations may be, they can: only be called the 
natural history of the Salmon of Nova Scotia. 
Should any one diligently examine the shallow bottoms of our 
i@land lakes or small streams, nay even the overflooded cart-ruts 
ef an old road, he will find them filled with small fish or fry. 
Qn examining them they will be found of various sizes, but all 
differing from other minnows, by lateral bars upon their sides, 
and by having a rayless fin on the back near the tail Some of 
these may be young trout, others young salmon. It is very hard 
to determine betwixt them. The sketches I show you came from 
Cole Harbour. Mr. Webb, Druggist, Water Street, had many of 
them in a vase in his window. They died very fast, and when 
he had them replenished, he was kind enough to procure me some, 
on Sept. 15, 1865. The eye is very large and the nose blunt, © 
colour greenish with dusky bars and reddish fins. I have, my- 
self, at Annapolis, seen the children catching them in brooks 
within a few yards of the tide, during @ctober. These may be 
considered as having been hatched during April and May, and 
thus nearly five months old. They can not yet be called Parr, 
but rather Pinks. From that time I have been endeavoring 
through myself and my friends to obtain a Nova Scotia Parr ; 
but have never succeeded. As these were taken late in Septem- 
ber it is probable that the increasing frosts of October and Noy- 
ember compel them to leave their shallow haunts and retreat 
to the lakes, which are soon frozen over, and thus they pass into 
Parrs unnoticed during early winter. Mr. Atkins, Commissioner 
of Fisheries, State of Maine, wrote me upon the same subject, 
saying he could never obtain Parrs. 
By the first of May the Smolts become frequent in our lake 
waters, that is to say, these Parrs have now, in the early Spring, 
the lakes still ice-bound, cast off their greenish yellow with dusky 
bars, and present themselves in silver laced with blue, but still re- 
taining the vermillion spots. Mr. Silver gave me one taken three 
niles from the sea, on May Ist, 1864, still retaining red spots. On 
