18 SALMON. 



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 publication 

 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 he recanted afterwards, and caused to be published 



