NATUEAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 31 



CHAPTER 11. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 



The Parr — Period of Emigration — Period of Immigration — What's a 

 Grilse ?— Natural Waste of Salmon Life— What are " Spring Salmon ?" 

 — " Fish of the Salmon kind." 



The natural history of the Salmon is not only in- 

 teresting in itself— interesting for what is known and 

 settled, for what is guessed and controverted, and for 

 what remains as utter mystery and dire perplexity, — but 

 is also important as having a bearing upon, or rather 

 forming an essential part of, the commercial and legis- 

 lative questions. Without some knowledge of how, 

 when", and where the fish breeds, dwells, and feeds, it is 

 useless to speak and xinsafe to act. The amount, how- 

 ever, of positive knowledge, the number of undisputed 

 facts, attainable by inquirers, wiU not be denied (except 

 by those who know very little) to be small, in com- 

 parison with the amount of conjecture and the number 

 of dogmas. The obvious natural difficulties of the 

 question have been greatly aggravated by dogmatism, 

 and, till within about thirty years, have scarcely been 

 assaUed by experiment. There is indeed almost no 

 subject on which it is easier to dogmatize than the 

 natural history of almost all kinds of fish, of which so 

 much is unascertained and probably unascertainable, 



