188 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PAR. 



season, is very satisfactorily accounted for. But 

 whether this discrepancy is, or is not correctly attri- 

 buted to the cause just mentioned, does not at all 

 affect the conclusion necessarily resulting from the 

 facts before stated, which is as clear as any position 

 drawn from positive demonstration can possibly 

 be, that a creature (whether male or female it 

 matters not), immediately about to propagate its 

 species, is not a creature in a state of infancy, but 

 in a state of maturity, and that, consequently, the 

 par is not the YOUNG of any fish, and cannot, 

 therefore, be the young of the salmon. 



Those who profess to consider the par a mule 

 fish, assert, firstly, that trout are frequently seen 

 on the same scour together with, and as if spawning 

 with the salmon, and that the par is the produce 

 of this union ; that they are either all males, or at 

 least, are never found with a clearly developed roe ; 

 for, like all hybrids, the par has no perfect organs of 

 generation ; Secondly, that as the par is always 

 found in salmon rivers, and no other, and is never 

 found even in such parts of those rivers, up which, 

 owing to falls, weirs, and other obstructions, sal- 

 mon cannot ascend, it must, therefore, neces- 

 sarily, directly or indirectly, be connected with 

 that fish. 



The mere circumstance of salmon and trout 

 frequenting together, in the spawning season, 

 such part of a river as is best adapted for their 



