RESPECTING THE PARR. 47 



do this ; on the contrary, as far as I can learn, they 

 confess they have discovered no variation of organic 

 structure. 



I have heard it objected that the growth of the 

 Salmon being very rapid, it seems out of the order of 

 nature to suppose that a creature should remain so long 

 in fresh water with so little increase of size. But 

 Salmon never grow in fresh water; on the contrary, they 

 begin to waste from the moment they enter a river, 

 whether they are clean at that period, or forward in 

 spawning. Besides, as the full latitude of the spawning 

 season endures for six months, some of the fry, acknow- 

 ledged by all to be Smolts, must be six months older than 

 others, and yet when they congregate to go to sea they 

 will all be found to be nearly of the same size. Now if 

 the fry, confessed by all to be Smolts, or the young of 

 the Salmon, do not increase during so many months, 

 why should it be objected that the Parr is not the 

 young of the Salmon on the same account ? 



These and other arguments have occurred to me from 

 time to time. All reasoning, however, on this subject 

 is now become superfluous ; Mr. John Shaw of Drum- 

 lanrig having demonstrated, by a number of careful 

 and scientific experiments, that the Parr is actually the 

 young of the Salmon. His first paper announcing this 

 important fact, was published in the " Edinburgh New 

 Philosophical Journal" for July, 183G, vol. xxi. page 99. 

 His second was read before the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh on the 18th December, 1837, and was published 

 in the " Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal " fur 

 January, 1838, vol. xxi v. page 165. His third and con- 



