MR. YOUNG ANSWEKS MY DOUBTS. 163 



caught were two years old, or thereabouts. I 

 doubted, therefore, the accuracy of Mr. Shaw's 

 " Experimental Observations on the Develop- 

 ment and Growth of Sahiion-Fry, from the Ex- 

 clusion of the Ova to the Age of Two Years." 



Immediately after my return to London I 

 wrote to Mr. Young, of whose reputation I had 

 in part heard, and I expressed to him my doubts 

 as to the slow growth of salmon-fry as maintained 

 by Mr. Shaw. Mr. Young promptly answered 

 my letter, stating that he regretted to differ from 

 Mr. Shaw ; in fact, that the latter gentleman's 

 calculations were wrong by one whole year ; that 

 there were no salmon-fry to be found in salmon 

 rivers with transverse bars at the age of eighteen 

 months (see Mr. Shaw's plates of young salmon) ; 

 that they became smolts at the age of twelve 

 months, and then migrated sea-wards, and not at 

 the age of twenty-four months, according to Mr. 

 Shaw's experimental theory. A weekly corres- 

 pondence almost, since 1847 up to the present 

 time, has been carried on between Mr. Young and 

 myself, the chief subject of which has been the 

 salmon, and nearly all that pertains to it. Mr. 

 Young, the year before last (1848), invited me to 

 visit him at Invershin, but I was not able to 

 experience his kindness until last year, when I 



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