A LABRADOR SPRING 
considerable proportion of the salmon that 
spawn early enough, — that is to say before 
the rivers freeze over, —return to the sea 
the same fall. But a very large number winter 
in the rivers and the lakes drained by them. 
These are the fish that come down the rivers 
in the spring as soon as the ice breaks up and 
until the spring freshets are over.’’ These are 
called kelts or lingards. While the salmon in 
October are dark and emaciated, the kelts 
emerge in April with shining scales, a change 
which Comeau believes due to a process of 
moulting the old scales and reproduction of new 
ones. 
The newly hatched fry are called parrs, which 
“pass into the smolt stage in their third and 
fourth year, going out of the rivers in August 
and September and sometimes in October.” 
In October they range in weight from half a 
pound to a pound and a half. The next season 
they ascend the rivers in July, August and 
September under the name of grilse, weighing 
then three to five pounds, still small enough 
to run through the regulation salmon-nets with 
a mesh of five inches. 
Rivers polluted by saw-mills or in other 
224 
