METAMORPHOSES OF THE SMOLT. Ill 



Bathan's, near the mill opposite Wherburn Glen. Should it be 

 so, and you of the right sort, we shall soon be good friends, 

 whatever be your rank in life; for as Scotland's poet has 

 written, 



"The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 

 The man's the man for a' that. " 



SOME EEMAEKS ON THE PROPAGATION OF THE 

 SALMON BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS, 



AND ON 



THE GROWTH AND METAMOEPHOSES OF THE FEY. 



THE propagation of the salmon by what has been called the 

 artificial method may ultimately prove a useful measure, but it 

 seems to me to be attended with considerable difficulties. With 

 adequate protection for the salmon, the smolt, and the ova, no 

 artificial methods can ever be required. The ova are protected by 

 being deposited under the gravel ; but it is difficult to suggest a 

 mode of protecting the very young fry. After they have become 

 what we call smolts, man is their chief enemy. Should it be 

 ultimately proved that the young salmon remain a year in the 

 river before they become smolts prepared to descend to the ocean, 

 then, adequately to protect the salmon, it will become necessary 

 to forbid angling in salmon rivers at all times. The sport of 

 angling must cease. 



The wood engraving on the next page gives a good idea of 

 the apparatus employed in the artificial propagation of the 

 salmon. Early in winter, when the salmon ready to spawn have 

 entered the rivers, two are caught, a male and female, and the 

 ova and milt are gently pressed from the spawning fish, and 

 received into a trough, and being mixed together, are covered 

 over to some inches' depth with gravel, &c. The utmost care 

 must be taken that a constant stream of fresh water runs through 

 this trough, in order to maintain the vitality of the ova deposited 



