STORMONTFIELD EXPERIMENT. 79 



were still in the parr state, and it was not until 

 the beginning of May that they commenced to 

 put on the smoult dress. By the 26th of this 

 month the pond was emptied to admit the young 

 fry that were in the boxes and canals. As on 

 former occasions, when emptying the pond, it 

 was discovered that from 50 to 100 of the fry 

 were still in the parr state. A few of these were 

 put into the filtering pond, and did not become 

 smoults until 1861, the rest were put into the 

 river. 670 smoults were marked this year. The 

 mark was cutting off the dead fin and a part of 

 the lower part of the tail. In order to prove 

 whether the fins grew after having been cut, Mr 

 Buist again desired the keeper to cut off the 

 dead, or second dorsal fin, and part of the tail 

 fin, and also to mark the gill cover with Mr 

 Baton's pinchers, on a number of the two-year 

 old parrs that had not assumed the smoult scales, 

 before he put them into the filtering pond, and 

 the result was that all the marks became obli- 

 terated except the marking by cutting off the 

 dead fin, which never was replaced. On the first 

 of March, 1860, Eobert Nicholson, Esq., who 

 rented the rod-fishing at Stanley, killed a fine 

 salmon with the mark of 1855. It weighed 22 



