90 SALMONID.E. 



If, therefore, it should be proved on experiment, that the 

 various distinct species of the Salmonicke, as they are now held 

 to be, will, when interbred, produce young capable of reproduc- 

 tion, it would go very far to establish the fact that the distinc- 

 tions are not distinctions, but merely varieties. 



I must not, however, be vmderstood as saying that the success 

 of experiments, and the establishment of such a result as I have 

 supposed, would go at all to prove that such intermixture of 

 varieties occurred, or such cross-breeds were produced in a state 

 of nature ; far from it. 



We know, that in vegetables, hybrids can be, and are, readily 

 produced by artificial means, which will not occur once in a 

 century, perhaps never would occur at all, were the plants left 

 to the operation of nature. 



Natui'e abhors monstrosities ; and the proverb that the " cat 

 will follow kind" is of older wisdom than Will Shakspeare^s. 

 Man's freaks have raised mongrels between the lion and the 

 tigress; Nature's, so far as we know, or can conjecture, never. 

 And always in a wild state a hundred circumstances, such as 

 difterent size, different habits, haunts, associations, and last, not 

 least, fear — one species of the same family being habitually the 

 devourer of his relatives — will prevent the occurrence of such 

 admixtures between animals. 



It would require many and strong evidences to make me 

 believe that the Brook Trout of ordinary dimensions would trust 

 itself willingly within such distance of the Salmon, or Lake 

 Trout, as would permit their ova to commingle in a single 

 furrow. 



Nor, indeed, do I believe, myself, that the result of such 



