32 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



fifty-four days after impregnation), " the embryo 

 fish were visible to the naked eye. On the yth of 

 May (101 days after impregnation), they had burst 

 the envelope, and were to be found amongst the 

 shingle of the stream. The temperature of the water 

 was at this time 43, and of the atmosphere 45 ; 

 and it is this brood which I have now had an oppor- 

 tunity of watching continuously for a length of time, 

 that is, for more than the entire period which was 

 required to elapse from their exclusion from the egg, 

 until their assumption of those characters which 

 distinguish the undoubted Salmon fry." 



Mr. Shaw then proceeds to describe the size and 

 appearance of the Salmon fry at different periods of 

 their age, accompanied with several very accurate 

 and well-executed engravings illustrating the text. 

 " One of these is a specimen two years old, when it 

 has assumed its migratory dress, and measures about 

 six inches and a half, being about the average size 

 of the brood/' Two years mark this and only 

 six inches and a half long ! It then goes to the sea 

 the first floods in May, and returns in two or three 

 months, as it may happen, when it is called a Gilse, 

 and is increased to the size of from four to seven 

 pounds, and indeed very considerably more, being 

 larger or smaller in proportion to the time it has 

 remained in the sea. A second visit to the sea gives 

 it another increase, when it returns to the river as a 

 Salmon. This appears so wonderful and extra- 

 ordinary a departure from the general laws of nature, 

 that it is no wonder that the most scientific men 

 have been misled. 



