188 INSTINCT OF THE SALMON FOR CHANGE. [CHAP. v. 



the transformation is accomplished ; how it is that only half 

 of a brood ripen into smolts at the end of a year, the other 

 moiety taking double that period to arrive at the same stage 

 of progress. Some scientific visitors to the Stormontfield ponds 

 say that this anomaly is natural enough, and that similar 

 ratios of growth may be observed among all animals ; but it is 

 curious that just exactly the half of a brood and the eggs be 

 it remembered all from adult salmon, and therefore similar in 

 ripeness and other conditions should change into smolts at 

 the end of a year, leaving a moiety in the ponds as parr for 

 another twelvemonth. 



The most remarkable phase in the life of the salmon is its 

 extraordinary instinct for change. .After the parr has become 

 a smolt, it is found that the desire to visit the sea is so intense, 

 especially in pond-bred fish, as to cause them to leap from 

 their place of confinement, in the hope of attaining at once 

 their salt-water goal ; and of course the instinct of river-bred 

 fish is equally strong on this point they all rush to the sea at 

 their proper season. There are various opinions as the cause 

 of the migratory instinct in the salmon. Some people say it 

 finds in the sea those rich feeding-grounds which enable it to 

 add so rapidly to its weight. It is quite certain that the fish 

 attains its primest condition while it is in the salt water ; 

 those caught in the estuaries by means of stake or bag nets 

 being richer in quality, and esteemed far before the river fish. 

 The moment the salmon enters the fresh water it begins to de- 

 crease in weight and fall from its high condition. It is a curi- 

 ous fact, and a wise provision of nature, that the eel, which is 

 also a migratory fish, descends to spawn in the sea as the 

 salmon is ascending to the river-head for the same purpose ; 

 were the fact different, and both fish to spawn in the river, the 

 roe of the salmon would be completely eaten up. In due 

 time then, we find the silver-coated host leaving the rippling 

 cradle of its birth, and adventuring on the more powerful 



