62 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 



hour in the salt water, they appeared very weak 

 and unable to rise from the bottom of the vessel 

 which contained them, the body of the fish swell- 

 ing to a considerable extent. This change of 

 colour in the fish could not be attributed to the 

 colour of the vessel which held them, for, on 

 being taken out, they still retained the same 

 brilliant colours. We have also taken ova which 

 had been recently manipulated upon, and dropped 

 it into sea water, which destroyed it almost in- 

 stantaneously. Only a few of them becoming 

 opaque, in the greater portion of them the yolk 

 became shrivelled up and contracted. We have 

 put smoults which have had on the scales for 

 some time into salt water directly from the fresh, 

 and they seemed in their true element. We have 

 also turned smoults out of a vessel containing 

 fresh water into a salt water pond, wherein the 

 sea flowed and ebbed, and we watched them as 

 they left the brackish water at the side and 

 sought the salt water as it was poured in un- 

 adulterated from the ocean, which they did a 

 few minutes after. These facts prove that until 

 the parr is covered with the new scales, it is 

 unable to live in salt water, and also that salmon 

 ova cannot hatch in the sea. Every one who 



