THE PAR. 93 



streams near the coast, few par comparatively are found, 

 although salmon ascend them in great quantities ? We 

 answer, that these waters, situated in hilly districts, 

 where the snow lies long, are more liable to be flooded 

 in spring than our southern rivers : accordingly, larger 

 numbers of the young fry are carried to the sea, in their 

 first stage, than from the more equal currents of Tay 

 and Tweed. 



Nor is our hypothesis altogether imaginary, for we 

 come to the relation of a circumstance, the happening 

 of which grounded our belief in this theory ; and no 

 assailable one it is, if our eyes, which are good, did not 

 deceive us. Last spring, after the time when smoults 

 generally descend, we chanced to capture a few of them 

 in St Mary's Loch, the streams about which are a fa- 

 vourite breeding-place for salmon. These were of a 

 large kind, and had been prevented from joining the 

 spring shoals, by their inability to discover the outlet 

 to the lake ; they were soft and loose in the scale, but 

 seemingly an enticing bait fo? pike which frequent a 

 smaller sheet of water immediately above St Mary's. 

 In the afternoon, happening to use one of these smoults 

 on our pike tackle, we remarked how its scales came 

 off in great numbers, discovering beneath a perfect par, 

 not to be mistaken in any one respect. This acciden- 

 tal discovery we further confirmed by repeated experi- 

 ments, and are now convinced beyond a doubt of the 

 fact, that par are the young of salmon in a certain state. 



Nor have we availed ourselves in the minutest de- 

 gree of the observations of our friend the Ettrick Shep- 

 herd, in the Agricultural Journal:, for we esteem his 

 method of proof as somewhat fallacious, and at war 

 with the established doctrine of chances ; yet we have 

 conversed with those who have asserted the accuracy 

 of Mr Hogg's statement, and we know it to be the con- 



