STORMONTFIELD EXPERIMENT. 85 



tend further to elucidate the history of the salmon. 

 Whether this gigantic experiment succeeds or 

 proves a failure, Mr Ashworth deserves the thanks 

 of the country for his labours. Mr Ashworth, in 

 advocating the adoption by salmon proprietors of 

 artificial culture, states it as his opinion, and that 

 of Mr Ffennell also, that not above 1 in 6000 sal- 

 mon ova, deposited naturally in the bed of a river, 

 arrives at the grilse or salmon state and becomes 

 marketable. Their reasons for coming to this 

 conclusion are, "that, as 12,000 fish were caught 

 in his river in one year on their way to the 

 spawning beds, these fish must have ascended the 

 river the previous year, and also the year previous 

 to that, and that at least half that quantity must 

 have gone up for the third or fourth years, con- 

 sequently that more than 24,000 fish, of various 

 ages, ascended the river annually, and taking one- 

 half to be females, we get 12,000 fish of various 

 sizes, from 6 to 12 Ibs. each, and producing, as 

 is well known, at the least, 6000 ova each 

 fish, would yield 72,000,000 of ova deposited, 

 or 1 from 6000 ova deposited naturally in the 

 river. Stormontfield ponds, we know, have 

 hatched 300,000 ova in one year; this quantity 

 hatched in a natural way, in the bed of the 



