ON THE ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF SALMON. 453 



greater portion had come to life and were at large in the boxes ; in June they 

 were admitted into the pond, their average size being about an inch and a 

 half in length. From the period of their admission into the pond the fry- 

 were fed daily with boiled liver rubbed small by the hand. Notwithstanding 

 the severity of the winter, they continued in a healtiiy condition, and in the 

 spring of the present year (1855) were found to have increased in size to 

 the average of M and 4 inches in length. On tiie 2nd of May, 1855, a 

 meeting of the Committee (appointed by the Tay proprietors in 1852) was 

 held at the pond, to consider the expediency of detaining the fry for another 

 year, or allowing them to depart. A comparison with the undoubted smolts 

 of the river then descending seawards, with the fry in the ponds, led to the 

 conclusion that the latter were not yet smolts, and ought to be detained. 

 Seventeen days afterwards, viz. on the I9th May, a second meeting was 

 held, in consequence of the great numbers of the fry having in the interim 

 assumed the migratory dress. On inspection, it was found that a considerable 

 portion were actual smolts, and the Committee came to the determination to 

 allow them to depart. Accordingly, the sluice communicating with the Tay 

 was opened, and every facility for egress afforded. Contrary to expecta- 

 tion, none of the fry manifested any inclination to leave the pond until 

 the 24th of May, when the larger and more mature of the smolts, after 

 having held themselves detached from the others for several days, went off 

 in a body. A series of similar emigrations took place, until fully one-half of 

 the fry had left the pond and descended the sluice to the Tay. It has long 

 been a subject of controversy, whether the fry of the salmon assume the 

 migratory dress in the second or third year of their existence. So favourable 

 an opportunity of deciding the question as that afforded by the Stormontfield 

 experiment was not to be overlooked. In order to test the matter in the 

 fairest possible way, it was resolved to mark a portion of the smolts in such 

 a maimer that they might easily be detected when returning as grilse. A 

 temporary tank, into which the lish must necessarily descend, was constructed 

 at the junction of the sluice with the Tay ; and as the shoals successively left 

 the pond, about one in every hundred was marked by the abscision of the 

 second dorsal fin. A greater number were marked on the 29lh of May than 

 on any other day, in all about 1200 or 1300. The result has proved highly 

 satisfactory. Within two months of the date of their liberation, viz. between 

 the 29th of May and 31st of July, twent3--two of the young fish so marked when 

 in the state of smolts, on their way to the sea, have been, in their returning mi- 

 gration up the river, recaptured, and carefully examined. This fact may be 

 considered as still further established, by observing the increased weight, 

 according to date, of the grilse caught and examined ; those taken first weigh- 

 ing 5 to 9^ lbs., then increasing progressively to 7 and 8 lbs., whilst the one 

 captured 31st July weighed no less than 9| pounds. In all these fish the 

 wound caused by marking was covered with skin, and in some a coating of 

 scales had formed over the part. Although twenty-two only are mentioned, 

 the taking of which rests on indubitable evidence, nearly as many more are 

 reported from distant parts ; the weights and sizes of these have not been 

 forwarded. 



"The experiment at Stormontfield has afforded satisfactory proof, that a 

 portion at least of the fry of the salmon assume the migratory dress, and 

 descend to the sea shortly after the close of the first year of their existence ; 

 and what is far more important in a practical point of view, it has also 

 demonstrated the practicability of rearing salmon of marketable value within 

 twenty months from the deposition of the ova. A very interesting question 

 still remains to be solved. At what date will the fry now in the pond 



