Sixth Annual Meeting. 



I have specimens in my cabinet now, in Canada, where they are 

 put side by side, and gentlemen will look at them and say they 

 are not the same fish at all. The change is so wonderful and 

 great that it is almost impossible for any man to believe it 

 unless he has seen the fish during the whole period of the year. 

 Thev become transformed in shape. The male would become 

 black as ink almost, and would have a projection on its lower 

 jaw of an inch or an inch and a half long ; therefore many 

 people, who are not cognizant of the nature of the fish, say, "It 

 cannot be the same kind of a fish that I caught in June last." 

 It is the same way with all our fish that are migratory. The 

 migratory fish all change wonderfully in their appearance and 

 in their nature. That fish, therefore, in my estimation, is a 

 salmo fontinalis, or a sea-trout, if you choose, or a sal/no Cana- 

 densis. I have caught them, hundreds and hundreds, along the 

 sea-coast, and I have caught them again away up in the small 

 tributaries, perhaps ioo or 150 miles up the river, and they are 

 just as different as you could possibly imagine two fish to be, 

 but yet I am satisfied they are the identical fish. But in order 

 to more fully prove this question, I instructed my assistant to 

 gather a large number of ova of sea-trout, and he has collected 

 300,000 or 400,000, and the last report I heard from him was that 

 they were just being hatched out. I have also brought some to 

 Ontario, and I am going to put them into some of the lakes of 

 Ontario. My theory is, when they are hatched out they will 

 become what is called the speckled-trout there ; and, on the 

 contrary, if we take the eggs of our speckled-trout in the 

 mountains, and hatch them and turn them into the sea, he will 

 become that same fish, because he has a larger area and more 

 food. If you take a stream in the country that is frequented by 

 these little trout five or six inches long, and go to work and 

 construct a dam covering two or three acres, in a few years 



