306 EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIMENT. 



salmon weighing fourteen pounds from the spawn- 

 ing bed, from which I also took a male parr weigh- 

 ing one ounce and a half, with the milt of which I 

 impregnated a quantity of her ova, and placed the 

 whole in a private pond; when, to my great 

 astonishment, the process succeeded in every re- 

 spect, as it had done with the ova which had been 

 impregnated by the adult male salmon, and exhi- 

 bited, from the first visible appearance of the 

 embryo fish up to their assuming their migratory 

 dress, the utmost health and vigour." Mr. Scrope 

 says, " On the 4th of January, 1837, a male parr, 

 itself the produce of a male parr and female adult 

 salmon, was made by expression of the milt to 

 impregnate the eggs of a salmon weighing twelve 

 pounds ; and for the better security of the whole it 

 was placed in a wooden trough, over which a 

 sheet of fine upper wire-gauze was fixed. The 

 trough was then placed in a stream of water 

 previously prepared for its reception, and the 

 results were precisely of a corresponding nature 

 to those already detailed. Now, if the parr and 

 salmon were distinct species, their produce would 

 be hybrids, and would not, therefore, breed again, 

 according to the rules of nature established to 

 prevent the confusion of different species by a 

 conservative law ; but this last and most import- 

 ant experiment has proved that the produce from 

 the male parr and female adult salmon will breed 



