the Residence of certain Fishes. 21 1 



might not succeed, by forcibly transporting the salmon to lakes 

 from which they could not reach the sea, is yet to be tried ; but 

 certainly there are not at present any salmon found in the Scottish 

 lakes, except where they have the power of making their annual 

 migrations into saltwater. That salmon are attached to the parti- 

 cular rivers where they have been spawned and bred, is believed by 

 all the fishermen; but this does not prove that they are naturalized 

 to those fresh waters, as they invariably return to the sea after 

 having deposited their spawn. 



According to Pallas, the sturgeon, the sterlet, and some species 

 of salmon reside in the river Kama without eyer: descending to the 

 Caspian sea; and the authority of such a naturalist is perhaps suf- 

 ficient to establish this interesting fact. 



These, then, are the whole of the proofs which, in M. Nouel's 

 paper, are adduced in support of this project ; it remains to be seen 

 by what other facts and reasonings its plausibility may be supported, 

 and an inducement offered to those who have it in their power, to 

 make such experiments as alone can establish it among those facts 

 in natural history which are capable of being applied to the uses 

 of man; to increasing the quantity, or adding to the accessible 

 variety of his food. 



In the first place, it must be remarked, that the habits of many 

 sea-fish are, in this respect, so convertible, or. so easily assimilated 

 to the requisite change, that a large portion of their time is passed 

 in fresh water. The common salmon, the grey salmon, and the 

 salmon trout, Salmo Salar, Salmo Eriox, and Salmo Trutta, are fa- 

 miliarly known to frequent rivers for the purpose of spawning ; re- 

 turning to the sea when this operation has been performed. The 

 Salmo Migratorius leaves the lake Baikal for the same season ; and, 

 with us, the S. Lavaretus, or Gwiniad, and the S. Eperlanus or 

 smelt, also quit the sea; ascending rivers at the spawning season, 

 as does the Salmo Autumnalis, an inhabitant of the frozen ocean. 



Now though M, Nouel is wrong in saying that the salmon 

 is found in the Scottish lakes excluded, from access to the sea, 

 it is a fact that the salmon trout, or sea trout, as it is called in Scot- 

 land, is now a permanent resident in a fresh-water lake in the 



