86 ANOMALIES IN SALMON-GROWTH. 



immediate rising of the fly in great numbers. It would, of 

 course, have been a simple plan to turn each year's fish out of 

 the ponds into the river as they were hatched, but it was 

 thought advisable rather to detain them tUl they were seized 

 with the migratory instinct and assumed the scales of smolt- 

 hood, which occurs, as already stated in other parts of this work, 

 at the age of one and two years respectively. Indeed, the ex- 

 periments conducted at the Stormontfield ponds have conclusively 

 settled the long-fought battle of the parr, and proved indis- 

 putably that the parr is the young of the salmon, that it becomes 

 transformed to a smolt, grows into a grilse, and ultimately 

 attains the honour of fidl-grown salmonhood. 



The anomaly in the growth of the parr was also attempted 

 to be solved at Stormontfield, but without success. In November 

 and December 1857 provision was made for hatching in 

 separate compartments the artificially impregnated ova of — 1, 

 parr and salmon ; 2, grilse and salmon ; 3, grilse pure ; 4, 

 salmon pure. It was found, when the young of these dififerent 

 matches came to be examined early in April 1859, that the 

 sizes of each kind varied a little, the superintendent of fisheries 

 informing us that — " 1st, the produce of the salmon with salmon 

 are 4 in. in length ; 2d, grilse with salmon, 3^ in. ; 3d, , grilse 

 with grilse, 3|- in. ; 4th, parr with grilse, 3 in. ; 5th, smolt 

 from large pond, 5 in." These results of a varied manipulation 

 never got a fair chance of being of use as a proof in the disputa- 

 tion ; for, owing to the limited extent of the ponds at the time, 

 the experiments were matured in such small boxes or pools as 

 evidently tended to stunt the growth of the fish. Up to the 

 present time the riddle which has so long puzzled our naturalists 

 in connection with the growth of the salmon has not been solved. 

 A visitor whom I met at the ponds was of opinion that a suf- 

 ficient quantity of milt was not used in the fructification of the 

 eggs, as the male fish were scarcer than the female ones, and 

 that those eggs which first came into contact with the milt 

 produced the stronger fish. 



The late Mr. Eobert Buist used to say that what most 

 struck strangers who visited the ponds was the great disparity in 

 the size of fish of the same age, the difference of which was 

 only that of a few weeks, as all were hatched by the month of 

 May. That there are Strong and weak fry from the moment 

 that they burst the covering admit of no doubt, and that the 

 early fish may very speedily be singled out from among the 



