370 Fisursa in American Waters. 
where there could not fail to arise great difficulties in identi- 
tying the fish upon which experiments had been tried; for 
the uncertainty and difficulty of marking a parr of two 
ounces, which is to grow to sixty or seventy times that 
weight before it can be caught again and identified, can not 
fail to be very great indeed. However, this is still a moot 
question, and it has not been as yet satisfactorily determined, 
though it would seem that the soundest and most reliable 
evidence is in favor of the fifteen months’ theory rather than 
the other. 
When the grilse returns to the river, it spawns for the first 
time as a grilse, in which, its third stage of existence, it is per- 
feetly distinguishable from the salmon ; for not only are ‘he 
scales loose and easily detached, but the fish is more slender 
and delicate in shape than the adult salmon, and the tail is 
much more forked. Having spawned, it becomes what is called 
a kelt or foul fish. The flesh is white, and the fish is out of 
condition and unwholesome to eat. It then goes down to the 
sea by easy stages, and there, by the aid of the healthful salt 
waters and plenteous food, it soon recovers its condition and 
grows rapidly, often increasing four or five pounds or more 
in weight. In the course of a few months (and this point is 
clearly ascertained and settled) it returns again to the river, 
but in the mean time it has lost its grilse form and become a 
veritable salmon. The scales now are bard and firm, the fish 
of a hardier, rounder make, the tail has lost its forked shape, 
and it has reached its fourth and last stage of existence. 
This change in the form of the fish actually at one time led 
to the belief that salmon and grilse were of a different spe- 
cies, and some few persons stoutly advocated this view ; but 
the ova of salmon have been found to produce grilse, and 
marked grilse have been retaken as salmon, so that there are 
not the shghtest grounds for such a wild supposition now; 
and, indeed, the belief always was a very partial one, and con- 
fined to one or two wrong-headed individuals, so that it is 
now entirely exploded. As a salmon, it continues in the same 
