370 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



where there could not fail to arise great difficulties in identi- 

 fying the fish upon which experiments had been tried; for 

 the uncertainty and difficulty of marking a parr of two 

 ounces, which is to grow to sixty or seventy times that 

 weight before it can be caught again and identified, can not 

 fail to be very great indeed. However, this is still a moot 

 question, and it has not been as yet satisfactorily determined, 

 though it would seem that the soundest and most reliable 

 evidence is in favor of the fifteen months' theory "rather than 

 the other. 



When the grilse returns to the river, it spawns.for the first 

 time as a grilse, in which, its third stage of existence, it is per- 

 fectly distinguishable from the salmon ; for not only are the 

 scales loose and easily detached, but the fish is more slender 

 and delicate in shape than the adult salmon, and the tail is 

 much more forked. Having spawned, it becomes what is called 

 a kelt or foul fish. The flesh is white, and the fish is out of 

 condition and unwholesome to eat. It then goes down to the 

 sea by easy stages, and there, by the aid of the healthful salt 

 waters and plenteous food, it soon recovers its condition and 

 grows rapidly, often increasing four or five pounds or more 

 in weight. In the course of a few months (and this point is 

 clearly ascertained and settled) it returns again to the river, 

 but in the mean time it has lost its grilse form and become a 

 veritable salmon. The scales now are hard and firm, the fish 

 of a hardier, rounder make, the tail has lost its forked shape, 

 and it has reached its fourth and last stage of existence. 



This change in the form of the fish actually at one time led 

 to the belief that salmon and grilse were of a different spe- 

 cies, and some few persons stoutly advocated this view ; but 

 the ova of salmon have been found to produce grilse, and 

 marked grilse have been retaken as salmon, so that there are 

 not the slightest grounds for such a wild supposition now; 

 and, indeed, the belief always was a very partial one, and con- 

 fined to one or two wrong-headed individuals, so that it is 

 now entirely exploded. As a salmon, it continues in the same 



