80 THE HISTORY AND HABITS OF THE SALMON. 



the latter description happen at any period during the in- 

 cubation of the ova, or soon after they have been incubated, 

 great injury must be the result: less, certainly, to the fry 

 fully developed than to the fry in ova, or to the fry mere- 

 ly a fish foetus. Besides all these casualties, floods disturb 

 the spawning salmon in divers other ways that I think 

 cannot be positively pointed out : I certainly dare not 

 attempt to do so. 



f{ Salmon fry remain in their native rivers one whole year, 

 at the end of which they migrate to the sea in search of 

 food. A month after incubation, the embryo salmon 

 assumes a perfect, or nearly a perfect, fish form, with trans- 

 verse bar marks on the sides faintly developed. These 

 marks go on increasing until the fish are eight months old, 

 when they are fully developed, and a row of beautiful 

 pink spots are now observable along the lateral line ; in 

 truth, the salmon fry is now as beautiful a little fish as 

 one would wish to see. It resembles much a little trout 

 called the e par,' but is not the ' par/ as, I am sorry to say, 

 many think it is. In Ireland, when at this stage, it is 

 called the f graveling ;' and as it now takes the artificial 

 fly very eagerly, they are killed in great numbers. How 

 to prevent this calamity I cannot tell. It is also destroyed 

 by other means, and something should be done to protect 

 salmon in their fry state. After the age of nine months 

 the transverse bar marks rapidly and visibly diminish ; and 

 at the age of twelve months they are ostensibly gone, and 

 the fry, now called a smolt, assumes a silvery hue on the 

 sides, in fact, almost the colour of an adult salmon in 

 prime condition. The silvery colour may be called its 

 migratory coat, for directly it assumes it, provided its 

 natal river has the requisite quantity of water to carry the 

 young wanderer easily over weirs, &c., it migrates to the 

 sea, where, on selected feeding ground, it remains gene- 

 rally between two and three months, sometimes more and 

 sometimes less. It then returns to the river of its birth 

 a grilse., may be of three pounds', may be of ten pounds' 

 weight ; say, on an average, if it be the descendant of a 

 salmon of large breed, of six pounds* weight. This, so 

 far, is the history of fish ; so that ova deposited early in 

 December, (the time of incubation averages, according to 



