MR. SHAW'S EXPERIMENTS 35 



in the parr or fry state ; and as they advance in 

 age and size the resemblance becomes still slighter. 

 But upon comparing them with the common trout, 

 the resemblance is very striking, the general outline 

 of the fish being much less elegant than that of the 

 young salmon or parr ; the external markings being 

 also more peculiarly those of the trout species ; so 

 that in the absence of the parent skins, which I 

 carefully preserved, it would be a matter of difficulty 

 to determine to which kind of trout they actually 

 belong." 



Mr. Shaw afterwards impregnated the ova of 

 the salmon with the milt of the common river 

 trout, according to my suggestion ; and in a letter 

 with which he favoured me, dated 26th of April, 

 1841, he says : " I am happy to inform you that 

 my experiments with the ova of the common trout 

 and salmon have been quite successful, and the 

 young hybrids are now hatched, and in good 

 health." Mr. Shaw will, of course, publish the 

 details of his late experiments, and thus add to the 

 obligations which those who are interested in this 

 subject already owe him. 



I will only add, that his papers are written with 

 such candour, and all his experiments conducted 

 with such care and ability, and so often repeated 

 with similar results, without any effort or intention 

 to make them bend to a favourite theory, that 

 every one, I think, who reads his pages, must 

 consider that the parr and the salmon are of the 

 same species, and that the question is so far set at 

 rest for ever. 



To sum up, it appears that the young fry had 



