BOUND TO THE SEA. '2 i 



fish," and their capture is illegal. After the spawning is 

 completed they are known as " kelts," or " spent-fish : " 

 the males are also termed " kippers," in allusion to the 

 " kip," or cartilaginous hook of the under jaw; and the 

 females a shedders" or "boggits." 



Let us recapitulate. The young fry, when first hatched, 

 are known as parr ; when a twelvemonth old, they are 

 smolts ; after their first migration, they become grilse; 

 thence they develop into the full-grown mature " salmon," 

 which, after spawning, is called a " kelt." 



Mr. Bertram is surely right in saying that the most 

 remarkable characteristic of the Salmo solar is its extra- 

 ordinary instinct for change. After the parr has grown 

 into a smolt, its desire to visit the sea is so intense, 

 especially if it has been bred in a breeding-pond, that 

 it will leap from its place of confinement in the hope 

 of attaining at once its salt-water goal. The instinct of 

 river-bred fish on this point is not less strong. They 

 rush towards the sea with as much eagerness as Xeno- 

 phon and his Greeks, 'who saluted it with the famous 

 cry of u Thalassa ! Thalassa !" Various opinions are ad- 

 vocated as to the cause of this migratory mania ; at which, 

 by the way, it would be very unbecoming in Englishmen 

 to sneer. Some people affirm that in the pasture-grounds 

 of Poseidon the fish finds that nutritious food which adds 

 so rapidly to its size and weight. There cannot be the 

 shadow of a doubt that sea-water ripens it to its prime 

 condition ; the river fish not being equal in savouriness, 

 crede experto ! to the noble specimens caught or netted in 

 the briny estuaries. They lose in weight and deteriorate 

 in quality from the moment they enter the fresh water. 

 It is a curious fact, we may add, and an instance of the 



