80 THE FISHERIES. 



their growth, as far as that stage, when they acquire 

 the pecuhar characteristics, and migratory instincts, 

 of the sahiQon-fry. There, however, his care and 

 tutelage ceased, as at that stage the impulse to quit 

 the river takes place, and the fry must then be al- 

 lowed to seek the sea, otherwise they die : but from 

 the artificial exclusion — by pressure — of the ova and 

 milt, either from living salmon, or from salmon re- 

 cently killed — which ova, fecundated with the milt, 

 he buried, or covered with gravel in his ponds in 

 imitation of the mode adopted by the salmon them- 

 selves, in their natural spawning places in the river 



to the appearance of the embryo-fish, emerging 



from the gravel — and then through the several 

 stages of their growth during a period of two years, 

 until they manifested themselves healthy and vigour- 

 ous salmon-fry — through, all these processes, Mr. 

 Shaw succeeded perfectly, in breeding and rearing 

 salmon-fry, and dismissing them from his fish-ponds 

 to the sea. It may be added, that in the course of 

 his experiments he fully established the fact of the 

 identity of the salmon-fry with the small fish called 

 the graveling — a discovery which, strange to say, 

 had escaped the acuteness and research of all natu- 

 ralists, and the merit of which is due to Mr. Shaw 

 alone. The experiments here alluded to, were car- 

 ried on under the surveillance of distinguished na- 

 turahsts, and other scientific and literary persons in 

 Scotland ; and the detail of all the processes may be 

 seen in Vol. XIV. of the " Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh.'' Still these experiments 



