56 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING. 



not at all interfere. It proves what has been asserted 

 as to change of outward appearance. 



All the fry, however, which go to sea at this period, 

 have not their silver scales perfected ; but many have 

 the bars and spots faintly indicated, as represented in 

 the lithograph (No. 3.) introduced a few pages forward, 

 — another fish selected from the same lot ; and although 

 the majority of these little emigrants go to the sea in 

 large masses about the first swells of the river in May, 

 yet I have no doubt but that some are continually 

 going down to the salt water in every month of the 

 year, — not with their silver scales on, but in the parr 

 state. I say not with their silver scales, because no 

 clear Smolt is ever seen in the Tweed during the sum- 

 mer and autumnal months. As the spawning season 

 in the Tweed extends over a period of six months, 

 some of the fry must be necessarily some months older 

 than others, — a circumstance which favours my sup- 

 position, that they are constantly descending to the 

 sea ; and it is only a supposition, as I have no proof of 

 the fact, and have never heard it suggested by any one. 

 But if I should be right, it will clear up some things 

 that cannot well be accounted for in any other mode. 

 For instance, in the month of March, 1841, Mr. Yarrell 

 informs me that he found a young Salmon in the Lon- 

 don market, and which he has preserved in spirits, 

 measuring only fifteen inches long, and weighing only 

 fifteen ounces. And again, another the following 

 April, sixteen and a half inches long, weighing twenty- 

 four ounces. Now, one of these appeared two months 

 and the other a month before the usual time when the 



