38 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING. 



they used to be so in my time, with the long net, in 

 pools where they rest, such as that below Kelso bridge ; 

 but they cannot be caught by the cairn nets, which 

 are so destructive to them in ascending. 



Having now despatched the Salmon to the sea, it re- 

 mains to me to explain what becomes of the spawn, and 

 how and when the young fry arrive at maturity ; and 

 as there have been various doubts and contradictions on 

 this subject, I think it more prudent to lead the reader 

 to a consideration of the following pages, than to make 

 a positive assertion on my own unsupported authority. 



Mr. Shaw's ingenious experiments have lately had a 

 very wide circulation ; but still I have thought it pro- 

 per to make a very short abstract of them, as they are 

 of too great importance to be omitted in any publica- 

 tion relating to Salmon. 



Up to a late period it was universally thought that 

 the spawn deposited as above mentioned was matured 

 in a brief time, and that the young fry of the winter 

 grew to six or seven inches long, were silver in colour, 

 and went down to the sea in this state with the first 

 floods early in the May of the coming spring. They were 

 then called Smolts. In the summer months there are 

 always multitudes of little fry in every salmon river, 

 which in the Tweed are called Parrs, and have been 

 thought to be a different species from the Salmon. I 

 have formerly held several tiresome arguments, both 

 with practical men and also with naturalists, with an 

 intent to convince them that they were one and the 

 same species. 



The late Mr. James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, was 

 particularly stiff and bristly in opinion against me. But 



