SALMON 29 



species, to prove that it is so from comparative 

 anatomy. But they have not been able to do this ; 

 on the contrary, as far as I can learn, they confess 

 they have discovered no variation of organic struc- 

 ture. 



I have heard it objected that the growth of the 

 Salmon being very rapid, it seems out of the order 

 of nature to suppose that a creature should remain 

 so long in fresh water with so little increase of size. 

 But Salmon never grow in fresh water ; on the con- 

 trary, they begin to waste from the moment they 

 enter a river, whether they are clean at that period, 

 or forward in spawning. Besides, as the full latitude 

 of the spawning season endures for six months, 

 some of the fry, acknowledged by all to be Smolts, 

 must be six months older than others, and yet 

 when they congregate to go to sea they will all be 

 found to be nearly of the same size. Now if the fry, 

 confessed by all to be Smolts, or the young of the 

 Salmon, do not increase during so many months, 

 why should it be objected that the Parr is not the 

 young of the Salmon on the same account ? 



These and other arguments have occurred to me 

 from time to time. All reasoning, however, on this 

 subject is now become superfluous ; Mr. John Shaw 

 of Drumlanrig having demonstrated, by a number 

 of careful and scientific experiments, that the Parr 

 is actually the young of the Salmon. His first paper, 

 announcing this important fact, was published in 

 the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for July, 

 1836, Vol. XXI, page 99. His second was read 

 before the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the iSth 



