132 INSTINCT OF THE SALMON FOE CHANGE. 



their ova so undeveloped that the granulations can scarcely be 

 discovered by a lens of some power. It is strange that both 

 Young's and Shaw's theories are likely to prove correct, though 

 seemingly so contradictory, and the much-disputed point settled, 

 that parrs (such as ours at least) are truly the young of the 

 salmon." 



It is quite certain that parr are young salmon, and that a 

 parr becomes a smolt and goes to the sea, although there are 

 Btill to be found, no doubt, a few wrong-headed people who 

 refuse to be convinced on the point, but pridefully maintain all 

 the old salmon theories and prejudices. With them the parr 

 is still a distinct fish, the smolt is the true young of Salmo salar 

 in its first stage, and a grilse is just a grilse and nothing 

 more. However, these old-world people will in time pass away 

 (there is no hope of converting them), and then the modem 

 views of salmon biography, founded as they are on laborious 

 personal investigation, will ultimately prevail. 



The Smolt and Grilse. — But the great parr mystery is 

 still unsolved — that is to say, no one knows on what principle 

 the transformation is accomplished ; why it is that only half 

 of a brood ripen into smolts at the end of a year, the other 

 moiety taking double that period to arrive at the same stage 

 of progress. Some scientific visitors to the Stormontfield ponds 

 say that this anomaly is natural enough, and that similar 

 ratios of growth may be observed among all animals ; but it is 

 curious that just exactly the half of a brood — and the eggs, be 

 it remembered, all from adult salmon, and therefore similar in 

 ripeness and other conditions. — should change into smolts at 

 the end of a year, leaving a moiety in the ponds as parr for 

 another twelvemonth. 



The most remarkable phase in the life of the salmon is its 

 extraordinary instinct for change. After the parr has become 

 a smolt, it is found that the desire to visit the sea is so intense, 

 especially in pond-bred fish, as to cause them to leap from 

 their place of confinement, in the hope of attaining at once 

 their salt-water goal ; and of course the instinct of river-bred 

 fish is equally strong on this point — they all rush to the sea at 

 their proper season. There are various opinions as to the cause 

 of this migratory instinct in the salmon. Some people say it 

 finds in the sea those rich feeding-grounds which enable it to 

 add so rapidly to its weight. It is quite certain that the fish 

 attains its primest condition while it is in the salt water; 



