SMOLTS 11 



development of the species salmon as we now know it 

 the bracing qualities of the sea, with its rich feeding, 

 are absolutely necessary. I am aware that some are 

 inclined to insist on the importance of the amount 

 of feeding in our streams, and to go the length of 

 suggesting that the stock of a salmon river should 

 not be allowed to increase beyond the point where 

 the smolt food fails to go round. To this I would 

 reply that I would not limit the supply of adult fish 

 on the chance of the parr starving, first because parr 

 are evidently able to do a good deal of starving, and 

 secondly because no man can well estimate the 

 amount of parr food in a river. I should start to 

 kill off the trout first. Also it seems to me that 

 the amount of variation in the times and seasons 

 when parr can go into sea water is probably an 

 excellent provision against any danger of over- 

 crowding. 



Herr Dahl, in Norway, considers that the parr 

 there leave the rivers when one year old. I confess I 

 am not satisfied that he is correct, and an examination 

 of the scales of Norwegian parr which I have had an 

 opportunity of seeing — thanks to Mr. H. W. John- 

 ston — supports this view ; yet we know that the 

 severe winter conditions of Norway modify very 

 materially the habits of the adult fish. The fry of 

 other salmonids seem to have different habits from 

 those observed in Britain. Mr. Rutter has investi- 

 gated the matter in the Sacramento river of the 

 Pacific coast of America, and finds that there the 

 fry begin to descend whenever they can swim, and 

 commonly reach brackish water in about three 



