FOUND AT ALL TIMES OF THE TEAR IN EIYEES. 87 



If we admit the parr to be a true salmon, all these contradic- 

 tory laws must be applied to him : here are the proofs. 



I. Examine, as I have done, hundreds and hundreds of the true 

 salmon smolt, whilst descending the rivers, sparkling with their 

 silvery scales, and obviously " salmon in miniature," towards 

 the ocean ; and the roe and the milt will constantly be found at 

 their minimum; that is, mere threads. And yet, after all these 

 have left the river for the ocean, we almost immediately find 

 the parr with the milt or male organs in the highest state of 

 development. If these were smolts not yet sufficiently grown, 

 how comes it that their brothers of a year older growth, as is 

 said, have left the river with the milt at its minimum, leaving 

 behind them their younger brothers with the same organ at its 

 maximum ? 



It is worthy, moreover, of observation, as showing the irregu- 

 larity of the phenomena as respects the parr, that even in Decem- 

 ber all male parr have not the milt developed, but only a certain 

 number. 



1st. On the 30th July, 1832, six parr were caught with the 

 artificial fly, at Romano Bridge, on the Lyne, a tributary of the 

 Tweed. They were of the usual size, averaging probably five 

 inches. All were males, with the milts large, and two and a 

 quarter inches in length. Do we find salmon usually with the 

 milt large in July ? 



2nd. At the Crook (on Tweed side), on the 31st of July, that 

 is, next day, often fish taken with the artificial fly, six were parrs; 

 they were much in the same state as the above. 



3rd. Of thirteen parrs caught on the 3rd of September, in the 

 Tweed, between Bield Bridge and Palnoudie, two only were 

 females ; the rest were males. Some were eight and a-half 

 inches long, others only four or five. In the larger the milts 

 were enormously developed. This was on the 3rd September, so 

 that if they were salmon they had the advantage of unheard-of 

 precocity, being advanced by many months before the full-grown 

 salmon. 



I had some parr, twenty-four in all, caught for me in the AE, 

 a tributary of the Annan. This was on the 13th December. Of 

 these, fourteen were female parr ; they were all caught with a 



