118 THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 



cimens of the grilse that we marked when smolts, 

 and which returned grilse from the sea to fresh water 

 the year they were marked, may be now seen in the 

 Museum of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 'We 

 continued these markings many years, invariably 

 with similar results, and at the same period, continu- 

 ously during three years, we carefully watched the 

 spawning operations, and spawning beds in all their 

 stages, and were fully convinced at last the fry re- 

 mained in the rivers one whole year, and no longer, 

 after having been hatched. However, though I was 

 fuUy convinced in the case, the public were not, and 

 still hung to the old theory that they were fry and 

 smolts the same year [the fry produced in 1854 from 

 ova deposited this year, say now, will not become 

 smolts until the spring of 1855], and that their mi- 

 gration to the sea took place shortly after they were 

 hatched. To make assurance doubly sure, we, in 

 1841, erected a chain of four artificial breeding ponds 

 by the river Shin [I have seen the remains of them. 

 They were in the Shin, close by its left-hand hank, 

 and about a quarter of a mUe or more from its 

 mouth], about fifty yards above Shin bridge, when 

 we hatched the fry to the state you have seen them 

 preserved here. [In Mr. Young's museum at Inver- 

 shin.] We continued this process for some years, and 

 always found the same result. The ponds were 

 visited and examined by Dr. Travers Twiss, of the 

 University of Oxford, through whom I presented, in 

 June, 1834, a set of ova and fry up to the smolt 



