YOUNGER QUOTED. 203 



nities of observing the habits and instincts of this fish; 

 nor are they entirely of recent date and origin. The 

 "Angler in Ireland/' a work published some years ago, 

 embodies the same opinion. A letter alluded to by 

 Mr. Scrope in support of Mr. Shaw's experiments, and 

 which was written thirty years ago, by the late Sir 

 Anthony Carlisle, although unintentionally, also favours 

 the idea of an impregnation of the ovaria before spawn- 

 ing. The writer says, " He imbedded the ova of the 

 salmon in the gravel without the milt of the male, 

 leaving the river trout to impregnate them; they did 

 so, and the river (Wandle) was afterwards full of the 

 fry so produced." 



This experiment as detailed, will, at the least, corro- 

 borate what I have said as to the number of hybrids 

 which, without question, would infest our salmon rivers, 

 were Mr. Shaw's theory a correct one a number any- 

 thing but diminished when his own admission, as to the 

 fact of the female fish being able to carry on her spawn- 

 ing operations without assistance from the male, is taken 

 into account. 



Since penning the above, my attention has been 

 directed to an article in the Edinburgh Journal of 

 Agriculture, written by Mr. John Younger, of St. 

 Boswells, and entitled, " Some fresh hints on the 

 nature of the salmon," &c. This intelligent observer, 

 the author of a clever little treatise on Tweed Angling, 

 I feel pleasure in stating, sets forth the same views as 

 are held by myself, on the subject of the breeding of 

 salmon. Alluding to Mr. Shaw's experiments with the 

 parr and that fish, he says : 



" However correct in his main opinion, derived from 

 a class of excellent experiments, that the parr is the 

 young of the salmon or other red sea fish of the first 



