30 SALMON. 



from their exclusion from the cgp^, until their assumption 

 of those characters which distinguish the undoubted 

 Salmon fry." 



Mr. Shaw then proceeds to describe the size and ap- 

 pearance of the Salmon fry at different periods of their 

 age, accompanied with several very accurate and well- 

 executed engravings illustrating the text. " One of these 

 is a specimen two years old, when it has assumed its mi- 

 gratory dress, and measures about six inches and a half, 

 being about the average size of the brood." Two years, — 

 mark this, — and only six inches and a half long ! It 

 then goes to the sea the first floods in May, and returns 

 in two or three months, as it may happen, when it is 

 called a Gilse, and is increased to the size of from four to 

 seven pounds, and indeed very considerably more, being 

 larger or smaller in proportion to the time it has re- 

 mained in the sea. A second visit to the sea gives it 

 another increase, when it returns to the river as a 

 Salmon. This appears so wonderful and extraordinary 

 a departure from the general laws of nature, that it is 

 no wonder that the most scientific men have been 

 misled. 



But if the Salmon fry attain but to such pigmy 

 growth in fresh water, still less is that element favour- 

 able to adult Salmon, which, as I have elsewhere ob- 

 served, fall off in size and contlition from the moment 

 they enter a river for the purpose of sjiawning. When 

 they have spawned, however, they certainly do mend 

 greatly in condition, or, more correctly speaking, recover 

 from their state of weakness. 



But to return to ]\Ir. Sha\v. — " The circumstance," 



