CULTURE OF THE SALMON. Ill 



Stormontfield, that the latter might be the produce of parr 

 with grilse, or either of these with the salmon, while the 

 early immigrants were entirely the offspring of mature sal- 

 mon. It was found, however, on impregnating the ova of 

 the one with the milt of the other, that the produce of each 

 of these minglings at the age of a year were about the same 

 size, the largest of them, which was but five inches long, 

 being from the ova of a salmon impregnated with the milt 

 of a large smolt taken from the pond. Owing to the limited 

 extent of the single pond at that time, however, the rearing 

 of the young fish was done in such confined space (as in 

 small ponds or boxes) as evidently stunted their growth, 

 and the riddle, why a part of the fry become smolts when 

 a little over a year old and the remaining part not until the 

 following summer, is still unsolved. 



Those who are not conversant with the natural history 

 of this fish will no doubt be astonished to learn that the 

 male parr in Scottish rivers has milt sufficiently mature, 

 at the spawning season, to impregnate the ova of a grilse 

 or full-grown salmon. Whether this be the case on this 

 side of the Atlantic it is difficult to say ; I am inclined to 

 believe it is not. In Europeali rivers the female grilse has 

 also mature spawn at the proper season, while the female 

 grilse in the wate^^ of New Brunswick has not, although 

 the male grilse may be found with well-developed milt. In 

 examining a dozen or more through the summer, and as 

 late as the 1st of September, I did not find one in which 

 the ova was in more than a rudimentary state. Whatever 

 may be the difference between the growth or adolesence 



