84 TREATISE ON FLY-FISHING. 



matured in a brief time, and that the young fry 

 of the winter grew to six or seven inches long ; 

 were silver in colour ; and went down to the sea 

 in this state with the first floods, early in the May 

 of the coming spring. 



Mr. Shaw's ingenious experiments, which have 

 been continued with the greatest care and atten- 

 tion for a long period, disprove the correctness 

 of this opinion. This gentleman constructed 

 three ponds, the banks so raised, and otherwise 

 formed in such a manner, that it was impossible 

 for any fish to escape, or for any other fish to 

 have access to them. On the 4th of January, 

 1837? some fresh spawn was deposited in one of 

 these ponds, on the 28th of April, one hundred 

 and fourteen days after impregnation, the young 

 salmon were excluded from the egg. On the 

 24th of May, twenty-seven days after being 

 hatched, the young fish had consumed the yolk 

 which remains attached to the lower part of the 

 body, and which serves them for nourishment ; 



