144 SALMON-REARING AT STORMONTFIELD. 



failure. Multitudes of parrs were produced in the little 

 stream connected with the fresh- water pond, but as there 

 was nothing to prevent them descending to the salt 

 water, most of them, no doubt, did so, and met their 

 fate. From personal observation Mr Brown asserts that 

 until the parr assumes the smolt scales it cannot live in 

 salt water. The following remarks should be considered 

 by those wiseacres who have declared their belief that 

 salmon spawn in the sea. " This fact was put to the 

 test by placing some parrs in salt water. Immediately 

 on being immersed in it the fish appeared distressed, 

 the fins standing stiff out, the parr marks becoming a 

 brilliant ultra-marine colour, and the belly and sides of 

 a bright orange. The water was often renewed, but 

 they all died, the last living nearly five hours. After 

 being an hour in the salt water they appeared very 

 weak and unable to rise from the bottom of the vessel 

 which contained them, the body of the fish swelling to 

 a considerable extent. We have taken ova which had 

 been previously manipulated upon, and dropped them 

 into sea water, which destroyed them almost instant- 

 aneously. We have put smolts, which have had on the 

 scales for some time, into salt water directly from the 

 fresh, and they seemed in their true element. These 

 facts prove, that until the parr is covered with the new 

 scales it is unable to live in salt water, and also that 

 salmon cannot hatch in the sea." 



Mr Brown, selecting five properly-developed smolts 

 reared at Stormontfield, conveyed them per rail to 

 Stonehaven, about sixty miles, and placed them safely 

 in the salt-water pond on the 30th June 1860. For 

 a few minutes they swam slowly among the brackish 

 water at the side, but soon darted into the sea-water. 

 On the 18th August Mr Brown saw three of his fish 

 grown double the size. On the 15th April 1861, one of 

 them was again seen, and reported to have doubled its 

 size. The result was annoying. One morning a noto- 

 rious poacher had been seen whipping the pond with 



