ON THE GROWTH OF THE SALMON. 185 
earlier stages of growth have come under my obser- 
vation :—Ist, that young males, exhibiting all the 
characters of the Parr, frequently have the lobes 
of milt fully matured, while females of the same 
size have the lobes of roe in so backward a state 
that it is necessary to employ a magnifier to distin- 
guish the ova; 2nd, that these males shed their 
milt in the ensuing autumnal and winter months; 
3rd, that the males of Salmon-smolts are found to 
have shed their milt before they descend to the sea, 
though the lobes of roe in the females are then 
of very small dimensions; and, 4th, that Smolts 
may be made to assume the barred appearance 
of Parrs by carefully removing their silvery scales. 
Perceiving that Mr. Shaw, in his ‘ Experimental 
Observations on the Development and Growth of 
Salmon-fry,’ published in the fourteenth volume of 
the ‘Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,’ 
had noticed the phenomena enumerated above, in- 
dependent testimony to the certamty of which may 
serve, however, in some measure, to corroborate 
the accuracy of his views, I put aside my notes in 
which they are recorded, and probably never would 
have recurred to them again had not various state- 
ments contained in Mr. Andrew Young’s treatise on 
the ‘Natural History and Habits of the Salmon,’ 
having relation to the growth of that species, in- 
duced me once more to turn to them, under the 
impression that they comprised evidence in favour 
