YOUNG SALMON. 



165 



parr was or was not the young of the salmon and arrived at a solid conclusion, was- 



James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, who, in his usual impulsive way, proceeded to verify 



his opinions. He had, while ^^ _.. 



herding sheep, many oppor- 



tunities of watching the 



fishing streams, and, like 



most of his class, he wielded 



his fishing-rod with con- 



siderable skill. While angling 



in the tributaries of some of 



the Border salmon-streams, 



he had often caught the parr 



as it was changing into the 



smolt, and had, after close 



observation, come to the 



conclusion that the little parr 



THE pipE 



act(s] _ 



was none other than the 



infant salmon. Mr. Hogg did not keep his discovery a secret, and the more his facts 



were controverted by the naturalists of the day the louder became his proclamations. 



He had suspected all his life that parr were salmon in their first stage. He would 



catch a parr with a few straggling scales upon it; he would look at this fish, and think 



it queer; instantly he would catch another, a little better covered with silver scales, 



but all loose, and not adhering to the body. Again, he would catch a smolt, 



manifestly a smolt, all covered with the white silver scales, yet still rather loose upon 



the skin, which would come off in his hand. Removing these scales, he found the parr 



with the blue finger-marks below them, and that the fish were young salmon then became- 



as manifest to the shepherd as that a lamb, if suffered to live, would become a sheep, 



Wondering at this, he marked a great number of the lesser fish, and offered rewards- 



(characteristically enougb, of whisky) to the 



peasantry to bring him such as had evidently 



undergone the change predicted by him. When 



this conclusion was settled in his mind, the 



Shepherd at once proclaimed his new-gained 



knowledge. ' What will the fishermen of Scot- 



land think/ said he, ' when I assure them, on 



the faith of long experience and observation, 



and on the word of one who can have no 



interest in instilling an untruth into their minds, 



that every insignificant parr with which the 



cockney fisher fills his basket is a salmon lost ! ' 



These crude attempts of the impulsive Shepherd of Ettrick and he was hotly opposed by 



the late Mr. Buist, of Stormontfield were not without their fruits; indeed, they were so- 



successful as quite to convince him that parr were young salmon in their first stage. 



THE FLYING-FISH (ExOCtttUS 



