162 MR. SHAW'S THEORY DOUBTED. 



matter : in fine, that he thought two heads 

 better than one. 



I will now state how I made the advantageous 

 acquaintance of Mr. Young. In 1847 I pub- 

 lished " A Handbook of Angling," in which I 

 inserted a brief sketch of the natural history of 

 salmon, following Mr. Shaw's theory, that the fry 

 of salmon do not arrive at the smolt state until 

 they are two years old ; that is, that they do 

 not assume the silvery, or migratory coat, until 

 they have attained the age mentioned, and do not 

 q:o to the sea before. In a few weeks after the 

 publication of the " Handbook," I went to Ire- 

 land, on a fly-fishing excursion, and whilst angling 

 for trout in some of the tributaries of salmon- 

 rivers, I caught a great many salmon-fry, marked 

 with transverse bars, ("parrs" Mr. Shaw and 

 others erroneously call them,) and also a great 

 many smolts, or salmon-fry in their silver-hued 

 migratory costume. This took place between 

 the middle of April and the middle of May. I 

 examined these little fish, and it struck me, I 

 cannot explain fully why, that Mr. Shaw had 

 exaggerated tlieir ages. I could not believe that 

 any of the fry marked with transverse bars ex- 

 ceeded in age twelve months, nor could I re- 

 concile with my own observation that the smolts I 



