MR. SHAW'S EXPERIMENTS. 185 



female salmon while depositing her spawn in the river, 

 and the female parrs being, in every instance, absent/' 

 (how Mr. Shaw has ascertained this to be the case he 

 does not think it advisable to inform us,) " suggested 

 the idea that the males were probably present with the 

 female salmon, at such seasons, for a sexual purpose ; 

 and to demonstrate the fact, I, in January, 1837, took 

 a female salmon weighing fourteen pounds from the 

 spawning-bed, from whence also I took a male parr 

 weighing one and a half ounce, with the milt of which 

 I impregnated a quantity of her ova, and placed it in 

 the stream E. pond No. 2, where, to my great astonish- 

 ment, the process succeeded in every respect as it had 

 done with that which had been impregnated by the 

 adult male salmon, and exhibited from the first visible 

 appearance of the embryo fish, up to their assuming 

 their migratory dress, the utmost health and vigour. 

 The very extraordinary results of these experiments, 

 although made with the utmost possible care, induced 

 me to defer giving them publicity, until I had repeat- 

 edly verified the fact. I therefore, removed the brood 

 to another pond, apart from all other fish, where they 

 had an abundant supply of insect food and wholesome 

 water, and again, early in the following January, I 

 repeated the experiment, by taking another female 

 salmon weighing fourteen pounds and two male parrs 

 from the same spawning-bed, and impregnated two 

 lots of her ova with the milt from the two parrs, and 

 afterwards placed them in the different streams inclosed 

 in boxes open at the top, temperature forty-five de- 

 grees. The extreme severity of the weather which 

 succeeded had, however, nearly proved fatal to the 

 whole. On the evening of the 8th of January, the day 

 on which I took the parents from the river, the frost 



