148 SALMON-REARING AT STORMONTFIELD. 



the fleshy part of the tail, while others were marked 

 with gilt copper wire ; but none of them were ever 

 heard of. It might be thought a dangerous expedient 

 to punch a triangular hole in the gill-cover of so small a 

 fish as a smolt. But this mode of marking, though found 

 to be safe, did not prove permanent. The portion re- 

 moved was speedily filled up. And now the Stormont- 

 field mark is the absence of the dead fin, which cannot 

 be simulated by those claiming the reward offered for the 

 identification of artificially reared salmon. A French 

 naturalist has hit on the ingenious expedient of intro- 

 ducing madder into the food of salmon-fry. Their bones 

 being coloured by it, they are certainly recognised as 

 artificially reared fish. 



These experiments also show how small is the risk 

 of artificial fish-rearing. In no year has there been a 

 mortality of ten per cent. How different is it with sal- 

 mon ova exposed to various accidents, and preyed upon 

 by numerous enemies ! The May-fly (ephemera) in its 

 larva state is most destructive. " One year," Messrs 

 Ashworth state, " we deposited 70,000 salmon in a small 

 pure stream adjoining to a plantation of fir trees, and 

 these ova we found to be entirely destroyed by the 

 larvae of the May-fly, which, in their mature state, be- 

 come the favourite food of smolts or young salmon. 

 We know that the natural enemies of the salmon can- 

 not be destroyed, as they exist both in rivers and in the 

 sea ; consequently there is left but one certain mode 

 of increasing the quantity of salmon, and that is by 

 artificial means by collecting the spawn, and placing 

 it beyond the reach of its enemies for hatching and 

 protection for the first year of its existence ; and this 

 may be done in vast quantities at a small cost, and 

 without injury to the parent fish." 



We pray those meditating how to encourage the 

 breed of salmon to remember that these are the words, 

 not of sanguine schemers, but of sagacious English 

 gentlemen of high position in Lancashire, and perfectly 



