184 NOTE. 



From the explanation attached to the engraving, the reader will 

 have a tolerable idea of the process employed, and of the several 

 tages of piscatory incubation ; but as everv question, it is said, 

 has two sides, and as our chief desire is to advocate free discussion 

 on the main question itself, we shall give a few observations from the 

 pen of Dr. Knox, who is at this moment writing on the matter,* 

 and who seems to have entered into the entire question with his 

 accustomed zeal, energy, and knowledge. He says : 



^ " It is rapacious, afl-destroying man who interferes, disturbing, 

 often unnecessarily, her plans and views. He thinks he can im- 

 prove on them ! You may try, but I rather think you will fail. 

 Still, there cannot arise any harm from endeavouring to protect the 

 ova and the fry resulting from them in artificial ponds until they 

 shall have acquired size and strength sufficient to protect them- 

 selves when turned into the main stream of the river. Once there, 

 they must be left to themselves to find their way to the ocean. 

 Let me examine, for a brief space, what this interval may be. I 

 mean the interval between the period when the fry have quitted 

 the gravel, until the time when, having acquired the robe or 

 external salmon covering, they are about to proceed in groups and 

 shoals to the ocean. Since 'the experiments of Mr. Young, of 

 Inverness-shire, this period is now supposed to be in one year after 

 thev have left the gravelly bed. Experiments made prior to those 

 by Mr. Yqun?, on the young of the salmon reared artificially at 

 Drumlanrig, led the world to believe that the young salmon re- 

 mained two years in the river before quitting it for the ocean. I 

 tln'nk it probable, by restraining the growth of the young salmon, 

 you may in time make it three years ; for the secret simply is, the 

 restraint you put on a young fish which nature ^ never intended 

 should be restrained. Leave the fry in the river, in the gravel of 

 which they were bred, and be assured they will be ready to descend 

 the river to ' the streams of ocean ' in three or four weeks from the 

 day they rose through the gravel. 



" I know that it is so in certain streams in the East Hiding of 

 Yorkshire, with a large kind of sea trout, which ascends these 

 small streams during the spawning season. I do not fear being 

 able to submit to you shortly proofs that the same law holds good 

 in the true salmon. 



" As I do not suppose that the promoters of the artificial method 

 of supplying the rivers of Britain with salmon, propose to abandon 

 the protection of the ova and fry, when deposited and grown in the 

 bed of the river, agreeably to Nature's laws, so it seems right that 

 further inquiry should be instituted into the natural history of the 

 fish. For the length of time during which the fry remain in the 

 river as fry, if determined, would determine the nature of the pro- 

 tection to be given to the fry. If but for a few weeks, the neces- 

 sary protection might readily be afforded them ; but should it be 



* The Illustrated London Magazine, January, 1854. 



