200 ON THE BREEDING OP SALMON. 



only observing, in reference to it, that I cannot well 

 conceive how any angler, resident upon a salmon stream 

 during the Spring months, could possibly entertain 

 doubts with regard to the parr being the young of the 

 salmon. He has only, by means of the fly or worm, to 

 capture a specimen or two of this fish in the middle of 

 March, when it is purely and unquestionably in its parr 

 state, and to continue capturing two or three individuals 

 every succeeding week, until the end of April, when he 

 will find the transformation fully completed. He will 

 also, at the same time, have an opportunity of observing 

 the gradual growth of the young scales, or what, with 

 respect to adult salmon, may be termed the moulting pro- 

 cess ; and he has to remember, should any change from 

 greater to less in the size of the fish, when in this state, 

 surprise him, that the body of parrs or smolts from 

 which he made a former capture is not the same as that 

 out of which he extracted his present specimens ; but 

 that, in the month of April especially, a constant descent 

 of the young salmon towards the sea is going on ; one 

 shoal following another, so that when those native to 

 the main stream have passed downward there remain 

 in their rear the tributary supplies of its feeders and 

 branches. 



It was not my design to have pursued this subject 

 any further, but in accidentally turning over the pages 

 of Mr. Scrope's well-known work, entitled "Days of 

 Salmon Fishing," I stumbled upon what, on a former 

 perusal, had escaped my attention, in the shape of two 

 letters from Mr. Shaw. Mr. Scrope, it appears, had 

 suggested to that gentleman the impregnation of the 

 ova of the salmon with the milt of the common river- 

 trout; and having acted upon this suggestion, Mr. 

 Shaw communicates the results of his experiments. 



