SALMON 



115 



about, and to seek food with great activity. They 

 are known as Parr, or as Samlet, and also in some 

 places by the names Pink, Brandling, and Finger- 

 ling. The Parr was formerly supposed to be a 

 distinct species (S, salmulus), an opinion to which 

 many anglers have clung tenaciously, even after 

 it has been shown to the satisfaction of all natu- 

 ralistsby Mr Shaw of Drumlanrig in 1834-36, 

 confirmed by experiments at the salmon-breeding 

 ponds at Stormontfield, near Perth, on the Tay 

 that the parr in reality is nothing else than the 

 young salmon. 



It was long urged that the male parr is very 

 often found with the milt perfect ; to which, 

 however, it was replied that the female parr is 

 almost never found with perfect roe. But it is now 

 abundantly proved that the male parr is capable of 

 impregnating the roe of the female salmon ; and, 

 indeed, ridiculous little parrs seem to be always 

 ready at hand to perform this service during the 

 combats of the great fish, or in their absence. 

 Another remarkable fact has been discovered, that 

 some parrs l>econie smolts and descend to the 

 sea in their first year, whilst others remain in the 

 fresh water, and in the parr state, without much 

 increase of size for another year, and a few even 

 to the third year. A parr will die in the salt 

 water. But when he assumes the silver mail of 

 the smolt, his instinct imperatively urges him to 

 seek the sea, where he thrives and grows. apace 

 the smolt which has taken one, two, or three years 

 to become six inches in length returning to the 

 river, at the end of two months in the sea, as a 

 grilse of several pounds weight. It has been proved 

 in the United States that, though a considerable 

 number of the smolts which descend to the sea 

 return the same season to the river as grilse, a 

 proportion of them do not return that season, but 

 spend their grilsehood in the sea, returning the 

 next season to the river as young spring salmon. 

 This has not l>een proved with regard to the 

 salmon of the United Kingdom. But many of the 

 best authorities believe it to be the case. At 

 Stormontfield it has been found that about one- 

 half of the parrs migrate when a year old. No 

 reason can be assigned for these things ; the facts 

 alone are known to us, and have but recently been 

 established. 



Grilse are captured in great numbers in the 

 later part of summer and in autumn, but very few 

 are seen in the earlier part of the fishing season. 

 The grilse usually spawns on its first return *o the 

 fresh water often remaining there for the winter, 

 and on again descending to the sea assumes the 

 perfect character of the mature salmon. Little 

 increase of size ever takes place in fresh water ; 

 but the growth of the salmon in the sea is marvel- 

 lously rapid, not only on its first migration, 

 but afterwards. A kelt cuught by the Duke of 

 Athole on 31st March weighed exactly ten pounds. 

 It was marked, and returned to the Tay, in the 

 lower part of which it was again caught, after five 

 weeks and two days, when it was found to weigh 

 twenty pounds and a quarter. 



The statistics of salmon-fisheries are very ini|>er- 

 fect. It is impossible accurately to ascertain the 

 total annual value of the salmon-fisheries even of 

 iin-at Britain and Ireland. But it we take the 

 must recent estimates of the English, Irish, and 

 Sroi.tish inspectors, we find the annual value of the 

 English salmon-fisheries to be . about 140,000 

 annually ; of the Scotch, 300,000 ; and of the 

 Irish, 500,000-or together 940,000 annually. 

 That the salmon-fishery is very fluctuating and 

 uncertain the following table of the boxes of 

 Scotch salmon gent to Billingsgate Market from 

 1834-89, both years inclusive, will conclusively 

 how : 



Year. 



1834 

 1835 

 1836 

 1837 

 1838 

 1839 

 1840 

 1841 

 1842 

 1843 

 1844 

 1845 

 1846 

 1847 

 1848 

 1849 

 1850 

 1851 

 1852 

 1853 

 1854 

 1855 

 1856 

 1857 

 1858 

 1859 

 1860 

 1861 



Boxes of Scotch 



30,650 

 42,330 

 24,570 

 32,300 

 21,400 

 16,340 

 15,160 

 28,500 

 39,417 

 30,300 

 28,178 

 31,062 

 25,510 

 20,112 

 22,525 

 23.690 

 13.940 

 11.593 

 13,044 

 19,485 

 23.104 

 18,197 

 15,438 

 18,654 

 21,56t 

 15,823 

 15.870 

 12,337 



1863 

 1864 

 1865 

 1866 

 1867 

 1868 

 1869 

 1870 

 1871 

 1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 

 1876 

 1S77 

 1878 

 1879 

 !--<> 

 1881 

 1882 

 1883 

 1884 

 1885 

 1886 

 1887 

 1888 

 1889 



Boxes of Scotch 

 Salmon. 

 22,796 

 24,297 

 22,603 

 19,009 

 21,726 

 23,006 

 28,020 

 20,474 

 20,648 



24,404 

 80,181 

 82,180 

 20.375 

 84.655 

 28,189 

 26,465 

 18,929 

 17,457 

 23,905 

 22,968 

 86,606 

 27,219 

 80,362 

 23,407 

 26,907 

 22,857 

 21,101 



During the first seven years in the above table 

 the average number of boxes of Scotch salmon sent 

 from Scotland to Billingsgate was 26,107; during 

 the second septennial period, 29,01 1 ; during the 

 third period, ending in 1854, 18,210; in 1855-61, 

 16,840; in 1862-68, 23,065; in 1869-75, 24,521 ; in 

 1876-82, 23,938; and during the last septennial 

 period, 1883-89, 26,765 boxes. The best year in 

 the table was 1835, and the worst was 1851. In 

 1895 the number of boxes sent was 25,364; no 

 account being taken of single fish sent by rail, or 

 of the large numl>ersof fish consumed in the district 

 where they were caught. 



The salmon-fisheries of the British rivers have in 

 general much decreased in productiveness since the 

 beginning of the 19th century. This is ascribed 

 by many to the introduction of fixed or standing 

 nets along the coast, by which salmon are taken in 

 great numbers before they reach the mouths of the 

 rivers to which they are proceeding, and in which 

 alone they were formerly caught ; it having been 

 discovered that salmon feel their way, as it were, 

 close along the shore for many miles towards the 

 mouth of a river, feeding, meanwhile, on sand- 

 launces, sand-hoppers, and other such prey. It is 

 also partly owing to the destruction of spawning 

 fish by poachers, and in no small measure to the 

 pollution of rivers consequent on the increase of 

 population and industry, and to the more thorough 

 drainage of land, the result of which has been that 

 rivers are for a comparatively small number of days 

 in the year in that half-flooded condition in which 

 salmon are most ready to ascend them. The last 

 of these causes is tlie most irremediable ; but 

 the abatement of the others would of itself be 

 sufficient to secure a productiveness of the rivers 

 much greater than at present. The efforts which 

 have begun to be made by breeding-ponds (see 

 PISCICULTURE) to preserve eggs and fry from 

 destruction, and so to multiply far beyond the 

 natural amount the young salmon ready to 

 descend to the sea, promise also nuch results as 

 may yet probably make the supply of salmon far 

 more abundant than it has ever been. There is 

 reason to think that the productiveness of the 

 waters may be increased as much as that of the 

 land. 



The stake-net is the most deadly of all means 

 employed for taking salmon ; and its use is pro- 

 hibited in rivers and estuaries. It consists of two 

 rows of net-covered stakes so placed between high 

 and low water marks that salmon coming up to 

 them, and proceeding along them, are conducted 

 through narrow openings into what is called the 



