20 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



proper to make a very short abstract of them, as 

 they are of too great importance to be omitted in 

 any publication relating to Salmon. 



Up to a late period it was universally thought 

 that the spawn deposited as above mentioned was 

 matured in a brief time, and that the young fry of 

 the winter grew to six or seven inches long, were 

 silver in colour, and went down to the sea in this 

 state with the first floods early in the May of the 

 coming spring. They were then called Smolts. In 

 the summer months there are always multitudes of 

 little fry in every salmon river, which in the Tweed 

 are called Pans, and have been thought to be a 

 different species from the Salmon. I have formerly 

 held several tiresome arguments, both with practical 

 men and also with naturalists, with an intent to 

 convince them that they were one and the same 

 species. 



The late Mr. James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, 

 was particularly stiff and bristly in opinion against 

 me. But he recanted afterwards, and caused to 

 be published in the famed Maga an account of 

 experiments made by himself, all tending to confirm 

 my theory. I suppose it would have been better 

 for my credit had I abstained from any colloquy 

 with the said James, which appears not to have 

 been particularly entertaining ; for lately, upon 

 asking my friend Sir Adam Ferguson if he recol- 

 lected the circumstance, " Perfectly well/' said he, 

 " and it was at your own table ; but I cannot say 

 who had the best of the argument, as I fell asleep 

 soon after it began." 



