THE SALMON. 



Willis Bund, in " Salmon Problems," gives another in- 

 stance of the great and rapid increase of a salmon from 

 his birth to his old age. "The late Mr. Ashworth," he 

 says, " states at three days old a young salmon is nearly 

 two grains in weight ; at sixteen months old he has in- 

 creased to 2 ounces, or four hundred and fifty times his 

 first weight ; at twenty months old, after the smolt has 

 been a few months in the sea, it becomes a grilse of 8^ 

 Ibs., having increased sixty-eight times in three or four 

 months ; at two and three-quarter years old it becomes a 

 salmon of 12 Ibs. to 15 Ibs. weight ; after which its increased 

 rate of growth has not been ascertained, but by the time it 

 becomes 30 Ibs. in weight it has increased 115,200 times 

 the weight it was at first." 



Mr. Willis Bund remarks on this statement : " With the 

 exception of the multiplication, one feels inclined to doubt 

 the above statement, or at least to ask for the evidence on 

 which it is based. Yet no one did more to bring about 

 the present Salmon Acts, and they were mainly passed on 

 such statements as these." 



It is well known that a great number of salmon run up 

 certain rivers very early in the year; indeed, they com- 

 mence running in January and continue through February, 

 March, and April. They are all in prime condition, gene- 

 rally large, 1 and it appears that a great proportion are 



1 In February and March a great many fine salmon from 15 to 43 

 Ibs. are displayed on the fishmongers' slabs in London. We counted 



