MR. SHAWS EXPERIMENTS 31 



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 

 opportunity 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 hah , 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, 1 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 

 extraordinary a departure from the general laws of 

 nature, that it is no wonder that the most scientific 

 men have been misled. 



But if the salmon fry attain but to such pigmy 

 growth in fresh water, still less is that element 



1 Generally written "grilse." ED. 



