M. TALENCIENNES. 83 



species. But this just remark does not at all inform us what 

 the fish we caUjMMT and the French tacon is. If the parr and 

 tacon be distinct species of trout, the female with fully developed 

 roe ought to exist. Now this has not been shown. It has, 

 indeed, been stated, that a female parr with the roe well developed 

 has been seen, though very rarely. Seeing the extreme rarity* of 

 such a phenomenon, it would have been desirable to have pre- 

 served the specimen, submitting it to scientific men. A female 

 mule has been known to produce a colt ; it is just possible ; 

 but the phenomenon is almost as rare as " birds with four legs, 

 and griffins." But were it even true, it would not prove the 

 parr to be a salmon. 



The question seems to be a narrow one, but, in fact, it is 

 not so. What are the facts ? What the conjectures ? What the 

 difficulties ? At a certain time of the year, we find universally, 

 in rivers frequented by salmon and sea trout, bitt in none else, 

 a little silvery fish, gregarious, in vast numbers, which nobody 

 doubts being a young salmon. f This is in the end of April and 

 early in May ; no such fish are to be found in any river at any 

 other time of the year. Of these young salmon, I have 

 examined hundreds, and have found no milt nor roe in the slightest 

 degree altered, or showing any appearance that it had ever been 

 so ; these organs were constantly at their minimum. I wish the 

 reader particularly to note this. These young salmon leave in 

 a body for the ocean, and so disappear. Some of them return, 

 we are assured by the experimentalists, in a few weeks, grown 

 into large grilses of several pounds, weight. Now, I think it 

 most probable, that all do not return so early and so well grown, 

 but that some may ascend the rivers in August and September, 

 not more than half-a-pound weight : whilst others which had 

 descended very early, so soon perhaps as February, may come 

 up early in March ; but this is mere conjecture, and I prefer 

 viewing these anomalous fishes as the young of the hirling. To 

 return to facts. 



After the fry, as salmon smolts have left the rivers in May, 

 there remain in the main stream and its tributaries innumerable 



* Shaw. f Denied by Mr. Young alone. 



a2 



