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CHAPTER XI. 

 ON THE GROWTH OF THE SALMON. 



IN the preceding chapter, I have disclosed certain 

 notions on the breeding of the salmon, which, it is 

 possible, may not meet with general acceptance. I 

 have done so, however, without any intention of acting 

 discourteously towards Mr. Shaw or any of his supporters, 

 whose position in the eye of the public is too strongly 

 fortified by actual experiments to admit of its being 

 assailed with impunity, by a mere casualist or theo- 

 retical observer, as some may choose to term me. The 

 strange anomaly of the milt of the male parr having 

 been found effectual in impregnating the discharged 

 ova of the full-grown salmon has led me to look out 

 for some weak point in Mr. S.'s experiments, and this 

 I have discovered, not as distinguishing any particular 

 case, but running, as it were, throughout the whole; 

 an error, in fact, in the principle or preconception upon 

 which one and all of these experiments were conducted. 

 Under the impression, therefore, that I am correct in 

 my discovery and have ascertained where the error 

 commences, I have only thought it proper, disclaiming, 

 as above stated, all notion of acting discourteously 

 towards Mr. S., to communicate, as has been done, my 

 own views on the subject. 



I am now brought to consider a matter which, as 

 connected with the natural history of the salmon, is 



