104 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



whether snch an occurrence is seen in nature ; if, in fact, there are what may be 

 termed wild land-locked races of this fish. 



Although it has been denied by Dr. Giinther that the land-locked salmon of 

 Lake Wenern* are anything but trout, it is, as I have stated, owing to his 

 unfortunately not having had the opportunity of examining the real local race. 

 Scandinavian ichthyologists appear from early times to have considered it to be a 

 local breed of the true salmon {Salmo salar), which had become unable, due to 

 physical changes in the conformation of the country at some period long since 

 gone by, to migrate seawards, and had consequently been compelled to pass its 

 entire existence in fresh waters {see page 5). This opinion was strongly combated by 

 Dr. Giinther in the Zoological Becord for 1864 ; for having obtained two forms of 

 trout from Lake Wenern, he came to the conclusion that one must represent the 

 land-locked salmon. This statement has possibly deterred fish-culturists from 

 seeking this variety for artificial propagation, as, had Dr. Giinther's identification 

 been correct, introducing either of these two races of trout into our waters would 

 certainly have been productive of little, if any, benefit. 



Having had an opportunity of closely examining a pair of undoubted Lake 

 Wenern salmon in 1883,t I must express my opinion that they certainly resemble 



* In the year 1863 Widegren gave it as his opinion that the different forms of Scandinavian 

 tront were local races or varieties of one species, while a large ealmonoid from Lake Ladoga lie 

 considered to be identical with Salmo salar, variety lacmtris of Hardin, and in these views 

 Malmgren coincided. Professor Lov&i about this time ascertained that certain marine Arctic 

 animals still survived at great depths in some of the Scandinavian lakes, as I have remarked 

 (page 5 ante). Mahngrem believed that anadromous salmon might have had their descent to the 

 ocean summarily stopped, and either themselves or their fry, which latter at least must have 

 been in the fresh water, had to select between extinction or continuing their race under altered 

 conditions. 



Hetting, the Superintendent of Fisheries in Norway, wrote to Dr. Soubeiran in February, 1866, 

 remarking that the common salmon lives in Lake Wenern, and has done so from time 

 immemorial, that it is now naturalized both there and in the great lakes of Norway, and where 

 the conditions of nourishment are favourable, it loses nothing of its qualities — at least, that the 

 Lake Wenern race rivals the marine salmon in its colour, taste, and size, while every year, from 

 May until the end of autumn, it migrates from the lake towards Klara-elv, similar to the sea 

 salmon, which at the same period quits the ocean in order to ascend into fresh waters. 



In 1866 Dr. Giinther, in the Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum, gave the local 

 species of the genus Salmo (omitting the chars) from the Scandinavian Peninsula and Finland 

 as follows : 1. Salmo mistops, Giinther ; 2. S. hardinii, Giinther ; 3. S. venemensis, Giinther, 

 and a Lapland S. polyosteus, Gunther ; having come to the conclusion that all descriptions pub- 

 lished up to that period by preceding authors were insuflScient for identification. To his second 

 species he appended the synonomy of the land-locked salmon of Wenern, Salmo salar variety 

 lacustris, but with a note of interrogation, as he was naturaUy doubtful whether the two referred 

 to the same fish. In short, the true land-locked salmon of this lake finds no place in the cata- 

 logue, and the two forms (S. hardinii and S. venemensis) recorded from thence in the work are 

 local races of Salmo trutta. Owing to this unfortunate confusion. Dr. Giinther concluded that 

 the Lake Wenern land-locked salmon, which he supposed S. hardinii might be, had smaller 

 scales (or thirteen transverse rows on the tail) than the true salmon, which has only twelve or 

 less at that spot, but admitted that it never entered the sea, being found in the Lake Wenern, 

 into which no marine fish can ascend, in consequence of intervening cataracts. He continued : 

 " A fanciful idea has been started that it is a salmon, with some of the characters modified, in 

 consequence of its compulsory residence in a fresh- water lake. We cannot see how such a change 

 in the life of a fish has the effect of diminishing the size of the scales " (p. 108). Certainly it must 

 be admitted that, although a lake salmon may vary in appearance as much as might a lake trout 

 from its river relatives, still the number of scales would keep within the same limits. While 

 having had the opportunity of examining the specimens in the British Museum alluded to in the 

 catalogue, there can be no doubt that the enumeration there given is generally correct. But the real 

 question is whether his enumeration of the scales is that which exists in the true Wenern salmon ? 



t The male is nearly 81 in. in length, has 115 rows of scales, and from nine to ten in an oblique 

 Une from the adipose dorsal fin to the lateral-line ; it possesses fifty-five ccBCal appendages, and 

 the milt semi-mature. The female is between 32 and 83 in. in length, has 116 rows of scales, and 

 from nine to ten in an oblique line from the adipose dorsal fin to the lateral-line. It also 

 possesses fifty-five cffical appendages, while the eggs are semi-mature. Further description would 

 be out of place here, and I can only say that these fish, if stuffed, could not be separated from 

 the salmon. The ctecal appendages are rather restricted in number, still as few as fifty-three 

 have been recorded from a salmon, and we do not yet know the conditions under which these 

 appendages vary in their number, unless, as seems possible, those living in the best feeding- 

 grounds and having a large range possess the greatest number. The scales on the tail do not 

 resemble in number those of the trout in its various races. 



