THE SALMON 19 



the following pages, than to make a positive asser- 

 tion on my own unsupported authority. 



Mr. Shaw's ingenious experiments have lately 

 had a very wide circulation ; but still I have 

 thought it 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 parrs, 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 Fergusson if he re- 

 collected the circumstance, "Perfectly well," said 



