OF THE SALMON. 59 



fry of nine months old. Last year, in August, I 

 furnished to Doctor Knox a specimen of that small 

 trout, along with salmon smolts from the river that 

 month. And the whole misunderstanding on that 

 head arose from the times that no interval was al- 

 lowed between hatching and the smolt state; for the 

 cleverest of naturalists, as well as those who observed 

 by the river side, always thought that the fry that 

 were hatched in the spring were the smolts and grilses 

 of that summer. And neither Mr. Jacobi nor any 

 other of these early naturalists or experimenters gave 

 the least information on any of the habits or sizes of 

 the fish at their different ages. All that they told 

 was only, if the ova and the milt of the fish were 

 mixed together and placed in a running stream of 

 water, similar to the stream that the fish placed these 

 ingredients in, that these seeds would produce young 

 fishes ; they either did not know, or, at least, forgot to 

 tell, what came of the fry until they arrived at the 

 smolt state, or what their age was at that time. I 

 have no doubt but these early artificial breeders 

 remained satisfied that the spring smolt was the 

 produce of the last winter's eggs, and such was the 

 universal belief. At that time, as yet, the whole 

 year's crop of fry remained in the river a year, as 

 they did and do so still, and was seen during sum- 

 mer by every one near the rivers, but was never 

 suspected to be salmon fry, and of course the whole 

 of these young fish were named " par," meaning a 

 state of equality, or a small or full grown fish. But 

 when it was discovered, by artificial breeding and 

 feeding them up iA confinement, that the fry of the 

 salmon remained a whole year in the fresh water after 

 being hatched, and that the smolt seen going down in 

 the course of spring and summer were the fry of a 

 previous year, then it was seen that a great number 



