SALMON TRIBE. 49 7 



form to which they subsequently attain. They are indeed shapeless little 

 monsters, more like tadpoles than fish, each furnished with a little bag of 

 nutriment forming a portion of the abdomen. On this, for two or three weeks, 

 they subsist, until it is absorbed, when they take the form of fishes. They are then 

 about 1 inch in length, and are known as salmon-fry or samlets. A portion of 

 the eggs are washed down the stream during the process of spawning, and become 

 the prey of trout and other fish which attend the redds for the purpose of feeding 

 on them. In this they do no harm whatever, for these eggs, being uncovered and 

 unfecundated, could never arrive at maturity. The kippers, when not actually 

 engaged in the spawning process, swim rapidly about the redd, fighting fiercely 

 with one another. The use of the beak appears then to come into operation. 

 Many authors erroneously describe this beak either as a weapon of offence, or as 

 a sort of pickaxe used in digging out the redd ; but it seems to me that nature 

 has provided this singular excrescence as a protection and safeguard against the 

 savage attacks made on each other. So large is its size, and so closely does it fit 

 into the hole or socket formed in the upper jaw, that it would appear almost 

 impossible for the fish even to open his mouth ; but he does so, to some extent at 

 least, and with its cat-like teeth inflicts deep, and sometimes dangerous wounds 

 on his antagonists. As to its alleged use as a digging implement, the substance 

 of the beak is cartilaginous, not horny, and by no means hard ; it would be worn 

 down in the process of digging in ten minutes, and, moreover, the female alone 

 prepares the redd. After leaving the stone or rock under which it has sought 

 protection, the young fish grows very rapidly, as is natural in one destined to 

 attain such huge dimensions as the salmon. In the course of a month or six 

 weeks the fry have attained to the length of 4 inches, and are then called ' parr ' ; 

 when they bear conspicuously on their bodies transverse marks or bars, which 

 are common to the young of every member of the salmon family. Unfortunately, 

 there is another little fish, a humble relation of the lordly salmon, also barred, very 

 similar in appearance, which too is called a parr, and the identity in name and 

 similarity in appearance has occasioned great confusion and controversy, especially 

 as they are inhabitants of the same waters, and affect to some extent each other's 

 company. The time of their remaining in the parr stage is also a subject of 

 dispute ; and while some say two, three, or sometimes four years, my opinion is 

 that they remain one year only. In the second April of their existence a change 

 in the appearance of the parr occurs, which assumes the silvery scales of the adult 

 fish, wearing his new apparel over his old barred coat. He is now called a ' smolt,' 

 and perhaps, with a wish to exhibit himself in his new and beautiful apparel, 

 evinces a daily increasing restlessness and desire to quit his home. With the 

 first iioods in May myriads of these lovely little fishes start on their downward 

 journey toward the sea. It is a beautiful sight to watch their movements when 

 descending; and for many days tin' river teems with them, not a square foot of 

 water being without one when the stream is at all rapid. As fry the smolts were 

 exposed to many dangers, but they were nothing to those which besei them as 

 parrs on their journey towards the sea. Their enemies are legion. Trout and 

 pike devour them: giill swoop down and swallow them wholesale. Herons, 

 standing mid-leg deep in the water, pick them out as tiny pass; and even their 

 ^vol. v. — ; X2 



