JAMES HOGG'S EXPEEIMENTS. 129 



large species of Salmonidse, as still considered by some, is 

 sufficiently obvious, from the circumstance that parr by hundreds 

 may be taken in the rivers all the summer, long after the fry of 

 the year of the larger migratory species have gone down to the 

 sea." Mr. Yarrell also says, " The smolt or young salmon is 

 by the fishermen of some rivers called ' a laspring ; ' " and 

 explains, " The laspring of some rivers is the young of the true 

 salmon ; but in others, as I know from having had specimens 

 sent me, the laspring is really only a parr." Mr. Yarrell further 

 states the prevalence of an opinion " that parrs were hybrids, 

 and all of them males." Many gentlemen who would not 

 admit that parr were salmon in their first stage have lived to 

 change their opinion. 



The first person who " took a thought about the matter" — 

 i.e., as to whether the parr was or was not the young of the 

 salmon — ^and arrived at a solid conclusion, was James Hogg, 

 the Ettrick Shepherd, who, in his usual impulsive way, pro- 

 ceeded to verify his opinions. He had, while herding sheep, 

 many opportunities of watching the fisning-streams, and, like 

 most of his class, he wielded his fishing-rod with consider- 

 able dexterity. ' While angling in the tributaries of some of the 

 Border salmon-streams he had often caught the parr as it was 

 changing into the smolt, and had, after close observation, come 

 to the conclusion that the little parr was none other than 

 the infant salmon. Mr. Hogg did not keep his discovery a secret, 

 and the more his facts were controverted by the naturalists of the 

 day the louder became his proclamations. He had suspected all 

 his life that parr were salmon in their first stage. He would 

 catch a parr with a few straggling scales upon it ; he would 

 look at this fish and think it queer ; instantly he would catch 

 another a little better covered with silver scales, but aU loose, 

 and not adhering to the body. Again he would catch a smolt, 

 manifestly a smolt, aU covered with the white silver scales, yet 

 still rather loose upon its skin, which would come off in his 

 hand. Removing these scales he found the parr, with the blue 

 finger-marks below them, and that the fish were young salmon 

 then became as manifest to the Shepherd as that a lamb, 

 if sufiered to live, would become a sheep. Wondering at this, 

 he marked a great number of the lesser fish, and offered rewards 

 (characteristically enough of whisky) to the peasantry to bring 

 him such as had evidently undergone the change predicted 

 by him. Whenever this conclusion was settled in his mind, the 



