THE SALMON. 165 



other specimens exhibited to the Royal Society 

 exemplify the same change, and some of these 

 distinctly shew, as it were, the intermediate or 

 transitionary state between the parr and smolt- 

 The whole, however, belonged to broods which, as 

 already mentioned, were the original produce of an 

 adult male and female salmon, and so could not be 

 otherwise than the natural young of these fishes. 

 Mr. Shaw then, we may here observe, has proved 

 two facts of the highest importance both in the na- 

 tural and economical history of the species in ques- 

 tion, 1st, That parr are the young of salmon, being 

 convertible into smolts; and 2dly, That the main body, 

 if not the whole of these smolts, do not proceed to 

 the sea until the second spring after that in which they 

 are hatched.* 



To state the matter shortly and syllogistically, 

 we think we are entitled to say, in reference to the 

 two specimens last alluded to : " These are young 

 salmon, one of these is a parr, therefore the parr 

 is the young of the salmon." But this neither our- 

 self nor any body else, whether peer or peasant, 



their escape by scouring all over the ponds, leaping and sporting, and 

 altogether displaying a vastly increased degree of activity." 



* Although Mr. Shaw could never perceive any of the river fry at- 

 tain the migratory state till the second spring after that in which they 

 were hatched, he informs us that one or two individuals of each 

 of his own broods assumed that condition at the age of 12 months. 

 This circumstance he is inclined to attribute to the higher tempera- 

 ture of the spring water ponds having hastened the ordinary natural 

 change : and he deems himself strongly supported in this opinion by 

 the fact, that no similar instance of an early or premature change has 

 occurred among other individuals reared in corresponding ponds sup- 

 plied with water from a rivulet, the temperature of which throughout 

 the year, ranges very equally with that of the river Nith. 



