OKnWTll OF Till: SAl.MnN. 7.'i 



opinion tliiit the lake experiments prove much, it' iinytliinj^, 

 either y/ro or con . since it is u known iuul establislicil tact, that 

 salt-water has a recuperative influence upon the mature fish 

 which run down the rivers exhausted by spawning', and also a 

 certain tendency to increase the j^rowth of the youn«; tish which 

 descend the streams, Snudts, as it now appears, in their second 

 year, of six or seven inches len^'th, and about as many ounces 

 weij^ht, and return I'eel or (irilse, varyinj; from two to eight 

 pounds. 



It must be observed here, that Grilse is the correct name 

 of the tish on its return from the sea in its second season, and 

 that Petl is merely a tishmonjijer's term for a small Grilse not 

 exceeding two pounds' weight. 



That the identical Smalt of six or seven ounces do return, 

 after two or three months' absence in the sea, as (xrilse of as 

 many pounds' weight, is proved beyond ;dl (lisj)uti>; Smalts 

 innumerable having been taken, nuirked with nundiered tickets 

 of zinc attached to the rays of their dorsal fins, set at liberty, 

 and ncaptured Grilse, varying from two to eight pounds, in the 

 autumn of the same year. The same experiment, with the 

 labels unremoved, shows that the same Grilse, descending the 

 stream of nnincrcased magnitmle in the spring of his third year, 

 returns in that third autumn a fish of sixteen, and upward to 

 twenty-five, pounds' weight. 



I hold, thercf«)re, that the argimicnt is conclusive, so long as 

 it is founded on a comparison between fish in a state, which 

 whether they be confined or at large, never visits the sea. 

 Beyond that the analog}' ceases. It remains to be seen whether 

 the Salmon confine<l to fresh water will ever attain the size of 



