130 A shepheed's problem. 



Shepherd at once proclaimed his new-gained knowledge. " What 

 •will the fishermen of Scotland think," said he, " when I assure 

 them, on the faith of long experience and observation, and on 

 the word of one who can have no interest in instUling an untruth 

 into their minds, that every insignificant parr with which the 

 Cockney fisher fills his basket is a salmon lost 1" These crude 

 attempts of the impulsive shepherd of Ettrick — and he i was 

 hotly opposed by the late Mr. Buist of Stormontfield — were not 

 without their fruits ; indeed they were «o successful as quite to 

 convince him that parr were young salmon in their first stage. 



As I have had occasion to mention the opinions of James 

 Hogg on the salmon question, I may be allowed to state here 

 that the following amusing bit of dialogue on the habits of the 

 salmon once took place between the Ettrick Shepherd and a 

 friend :— 



Shepherd — " I maintain that ilka saumon comes aye back 

 again frae the sea tUl spawn in its ain water." 



Friend — " Toots, toots, Jamie ! hoo can it manage tUl do 

 that 1 hoo, in the name o' wonder, can a fish, travelling up a 

 turbid water frae the sea, know when it reaches the entrance 

 to its birthplace, or that it has arrived at the tribituary that 

 was its cradle?" 



Shepherd — " Man, the great wonder to me is no hoo the fish 

 get back, but hoo they find their way till the sea first ava, seein' 

 that they've never been there afore ! " 



The parr question, however, was determined in a rather 

 more formal mode than that adopted by the author of " Bonny 

 KUmenny." The late Mr. Shaw, a forester in the employment 

 of the Duke of Buccleuch, took up the case of the parr in 1833, 

 and succeeded in solving the problem. In order that he might 

 watch the progressive growth of the parr, Mr. Shaw began by 

 capturing seven of these little fishes on the 11th of July 1833 ; 

 these he placed in a pond supplied by a stream of excellent 

 water, where they grew and flourished apace till early in April 

 1834, between which date and the 17th of the following May 

 they became smolts ; and all who saw them on that day when 

 they were caught by Mr. Shaw were thoroughly convinced that 

 they were true salmon smolts. In March 1835 Mr. Shaw re- 

 peated his experiments with twelve pan-s of a larger size, taken 

 also from the river. On being transferred to the pond, these 

 80 speedily acquired the scales of the smolt that Mr. Shaw 

 assumed a period of two years as being the time at which the 



