SALMONID^E. 63 



Dr. Knox seems to have erred merely in supposing that the pinks, 

 the size of the little finger, were from the ova hatched in April, when 

 they were probably from an earlier hatching of fish, which spawned at 

 a more remote date. 



It seems, however, to be clearly and certainly established by these 

 experiments, that the smolt, or laspring, as they are sometimes called, 

 which descend the rivers every spring toward the middle of May, are 

 a whole year older than the pinks, which are taken in the same waters, 

 at the same time, and by the same fly. 



With regard to the later growth of the Salmon, I am not of opinion 

 that the lake experiments prove much, if anything, either pro or con ; 

 since it is a known and established fact, that salt-water has a recupe- 

 rative influence upon the mature fish which run down the rivers ex- 

 hausted by spawning, and also a certain tendency to increase the 

 growth of the young fish which descend the streams, smolts, as it now 

 appears, in their second year, of six or seven inches length, and about 

 as many ounces weight, and return peal or grilse, varying from two to 

 eight pounds. 



It must be observed here, that grilse is the correct name of the fish 

 on its return from the sea in its second season, and that peal is merely a 

 fishmonger's term for a small grilse not exceeding two pounds' weight. 



That the identical smolt of six or seven ounces do return, after 

 two or three months' absence in the sea, as grilse of as many pounds' 

 weight, is proved beyond all dispute ; smolts innumerable having been 

 taken, marked with numbered tickets of zinc attached to the rays of 

 their dorsal fins, set at liberty, and recaptured grilse, varying from 

 two to eight pounds, in the autumn of the same year. The same 

 experiment, with the labels unremoved, shows that the same grilse, 

 descending the stream of unincreased magnitude in the spring of his 

 third year, returns in that third autumn a fish of sixteen, and upward 

 to twenty-five, pounds' weight. 



I hold, therefore, that the argument is conclusive, so long as it is 

 founded on a comparison between fish which, whether they be con- 

 fined or at large, never visits the sea. Beyond that the analogy 

 ceases. It remains to be seen whether the Salmon confined to fresh- 

 water will ever attain the size of those which run to and fro, from the 

 fresh to the salt ; I greatly doubt it ; and, with Mr. Yarrel, I think it 



