EXPERIMENTS WITH SALMON. 39 



curious and interesting information respecting the habits of 

 salmon and trout, having studied their natural history, and 

 having lived, as it were, amongst fish during his whole 

 life. Mr. Young has made such good use of the opportunities 

 which his position has afforded him, that he has thrown 

 considerable light on the history of the inhabitants of an 

 element in which we cannot follow them. His patience in 

 trying experiments with the spawn and young of the salmon 

 has enabled him to explain many parts of their history which 

 had hitherto been obscure, or at best but imperfectly under- 

 stood. The encouragement, too, which he has always met 

 with from the Duke, has still further enabled him to bring a 

 naturally acute and inquiring mind to bear on the point in 

 question. For some years he managed (by forming artificial 

 spawning-beds or ponds) to have the ova under his immediate 

 observation from the hour of their being deposited to the 

 time that in the shape of " smolts " (I think that is the local 

 name) of four to six inches in length, the young salmon go 

 down to their mysterious feeding nurseries in the depths of 

 the ocean. Mr. Young kindly showed me numerous speci- 

 mens preserved in spirits of wine of the gradual development 

 and grosvth of the fish, from its egg state, when it looks like 

 a small pea, to its full maturity. 



Strange as it seems, it would certainly appear from his 

 observations that a salmon may be kept for any length of 

 time in a river without growing beyond the weight of two to 

 four ounces, and he showed me specimens of salmon which, 

 though of perfect form and condition, did not exceed that 

 size ; whereas had they been allowed to reach the sea, they 

 would at the same age have weighed from six to ten pounds 

 each. The growth of salmon when in the sea is wonderful, 

 it having been indisputably proved that a salmon has grown 

 eleven pounds six ounces during the short period of five 

 weeks and two days : the fish having been marked on its 

 passage to the sea, was caught again in the same river when 

 ascending, after an interval of that duration. 



The destruction of salmon during their passage to, and 

 residence in, the sea must be wonderful, and defies all 

 calculation. Did all the fish, which descend as fry, return as 

 salmon, the rivers would not hold them. Their enemies are 

 countless ; every fish and every sea-fowl preys and fattens 

 on them. At the mouths of rivers, and indeed at every 

 shallow on their passage, thousands of gulls and other birds 



