PEEFACE. 



THE writer of these pages had his attention first 

 attracted to this subject by the experiments of 

 Mr Shaw of Drumlanrig from 1833 to 1838. 

 Previous to that time, with very few exceptions 

 the whole of those persons who were connected 

 with the salmon fisheries believed that the parrs, 

 which are so numerous in all salmon rivers and 

 streams, were a species of fish (sui generis), and 

 which never attained a larger size than seven or 

 eight inches; the principal use of which fish was 

 to afford sport to juvenile anglers, and to serve for 

 bait in the capture of larger fish by more ad- 

 vanced "Waltons." 



Being a believer in the general parr theory, the 

 writer resolved to put Mr Shaw's statements to the 

 test; and having, in the month of February, 1836, 

 caught a dozen and a-half of parrs in the Tay, 



