NAMES APPLIED TO LIFE STAGES. 19 



experience, and observations constitute virtually all that is known of the New England 

 salmon to this day. This fact is not directly attributable alone to the scarcity of salmon, 

 but to the lack of adequate effort on the part of anybody else. Consequently, at the 

 present time, for information concerning the salmon, resort must be had to other coun- 

 tries with the assumption that the species is the same and that conditions are similar. 

 For the foregoing reasons, in this memoir the discussion of the Ufe history and habits 

 of the Atlantic salmon are largely derived from Atkins and European sources, to which 

 is added a small amount from Canadian authorities, and a few of my own observations. 



Names Applied to Life Stages. 



The names applied to certain stages of growth and conditions of salmon are of British 

 origin, and their use for American salmon presupposes an identity of habits in general, 

 and, as Atkins says, so far as these have been investigated there is nothing to forbid 

 that supposition. The only names adopted in this country are parr, smolt, grilse, kelt, 

 and salmon. 



A parr is a young sahnon before it leaves the river; a smolt is a young salmon ready 

 to migrate; a grilse is an adolescent salmon, which after it has left the river as a smolt, 

 has spent one winter in the sea. The term grilse, is usually applied to small salmon on 

 their first return to the bays and rivers. A kelt is a salmon deteriorated during breeding. 

 A salmon in relation to the last form mentioned is sometimes designated as a 'clean' 

 salmon, indicating a fish in good condition such as is the case with salmon ascending 

 rivers to breed. Day writes (1887, p. 59, footnote), 'John Josselyn, writing in 1675, 

 refers to the salmon of New England as in the first year a salmon-smolt, the second as a 

 mort, the third as a spraid, the fourth as a soar, the fifth as a sorrel, the sixth as a forket- 

 tail, and the seventh as a salmon, showing that' even in those days [over 250 years ago] 

 differences had been observed in the various stages of growth of this fish.' 



Size Attained by Salmon. 



Day (1887, p. 141) says, 'The size to which this fish attains depends upon the extent 

 and character of the water it inhabits, the quantity and quality of its food, temperature, 

 and other circumstances. A considerable amount of caution is necessary before we 

 accept some of the dimensions and weights which have been handed down to us.' In a 

 footnote on the same page presumably as a reason for 'caution,' Day says, 'In Hennesey's 

 Chronicum Scotorum, p. 317, mention is made as follows: — "A.D. 1109. A salmon was 

 caught at Luimnech (Limerick) this year, which was twelve feet in length, twelve hands 

 in breadth, without being spUt open, and the length of its neck fin was three hands and 

 two fingers." A correspondent of The Field, February 13, 1886, gave a circumstantial 

 account of one "82 lb. that was taken in a snap-net in the Shannon twelve years ago. 

 It was weighed by the station master before being sent off by train ... it was also 

 measured." The succeeding month we were informed that the fish was a sturgeon!' 



