GROWTH OF THE SALMON. 73 



opinion that the lake experiments prove much, if anything, 

 either pro or con ; since it is a known and established fact, 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 growth of the young fish which 

 descend the streams. Smalts, as it now appears, in their second 

 year, of six or seven inches length, and about as many ounces 

 weight, and return Peel or Grilse, varying from two to eight 

 pounds. 



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

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

 that Peel is merely a fishmonger'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 Grilse of as 

 many pounds' weight, is proved beyond all dispute; Smalts 

 innumerable having been taken, marked with numbered tickets 

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

 and recaptured 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 unincreased magnitude 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, therefore, that the argument 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 analogy ceases. It remains to be seen whether 

 the Salmon confined to fresh water will ever attain the size of 



