"THE KING OF FISHES." 63 



to begin about the month of September, and to end 

 about January. 



Each river shows its own peculiarities, however, 

 as regards the spawning season ; but after a period, 

 varying in duration from seventy to ninety, or even a 

 hundred and twenty days or more, the young salmon 

 fry hatch out, and appear as active little fishes, each 

 with the yolk-sac of the egg still in process of absorp- 

 tion. A few weeks, however, see a marked change 

 occur to the young salmon. It is then about an inch 

 in length, its sides become marked by dark bands of 

 very distinctive kind, and it is known to naturalists 

 and fishers as the parr. 



Long ago, there raged a hot controversy over the 

 question, " Are parr the young of salmon ? " Thanks 

 to that actual observation which solves so many pro- 

 blems, and which would save so much discussion if it 

 were only more frequently practised, this question can 

 be affirmatively answered. Parr are salmon in the 

 days of their infancy. Now, however, comes a strik- 

 ing fact in salmon history. The next change which 

 the youthful fish undergoes is that of leaving off its 

 parr-dress and appearing in the guise of the smolt. 

 We now know that some of the parr don their smolt 

 guise between thirteen and fifteen months after they 

 are hatched ; while others, and by far the greater 

 proportion of the parr, do not become smolts until 

 twenty-six months after they leave the egg. 



Once having donned the smolt-dress, the salmon, 

 now in the days of its youth, seeks the sea. Up to 

 this period it has been a freshwater dweller. Between 

 March and June the smolts hurry to the ocean. There 

 we lose sight of them for a few months ; but, when 

 they reappear, we find that, as we say of our friends 



