266 



THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



lation in a moment before this art had had 

 time to approve itself to the nation. With 

 regard to his hybrid experiments, they were 

 yet too young to say exactly what might come 

 of them, but they showed peculiar forms in 

 scaling, and perhaps might help towards con- 

 necting different species of Salmonidjv and re- 

 ducing them down to one or two species, the 

 others being merely varieties. He was much 

 obliged to Mr. Wilmot for his remarks on 

 land-locked Salmon; but having had some 

 experience on lakes in Scotland where Salmon 

 had been bred and had not gone into fhe sea, 

 he had found invariably that where there were 

 no Char in the lake the Salmon had become 

 very large in the head, and seldom exceeded 

 four or five pounds in weight. On the other 

 hand, some nine years ago he got a few eggs 

 of the Leuvi Trout from the late Mr. Buckland, 

 and turned about one hundred and fifty into a 

 small piece of water a little over one hundred 

 acres, which contained nothing but small 

 Perch. Last Friday a gentleman brought him 

 one of these fish, which he had found washed 

 ashore, which' must have been just nine years 

 old ; it measured 33£ inches, but was in very 

 bad condition. The Trout when put under 

 conditions of having shallow swimming fish 

 beside it had obtained this enormous size, and 

 he had no doubt it was absolutely necessary to 

 land-locked Salmon to have shallow-swimming 

 fish to feed upon. If they were not present in 

 the water, they should be introduced first, and 

 the Salmo sebago afterwards ; this would make 

 the experiment more successful. He concluded 

 by proposing a vote of thanks to the Chairman, 

 who had taken a great interest in the operations 

 of the Fish Culture Association, of which he 

 was President. 



The Marquis of Hamilton had much plea- 

 sure in seconding the vote of thanks to the 

 Chairman. He could not but think that the 

 speeches which had been delivered that morn- 

 ing would have the most practical effect on all 

 those interested in fisheries. He hoped the 

 observations made by Mr. Wilmot with refer- 

 ence to State aid being given to the fisheries of 

 this country, would be earnestly taken up by 

 tlie public at large, and that before many 

 months had elapsed they would take a prac- 

 tical form, and be brought forcibly under fhe 

 notice of Government, 



The vote of thanks having being passed un- 

 animously. 



The Chairman assured Congress it had given 

 him the greatest pleasure to be of any use by 

 occupying the chair. He had seldom presided 



at so interesting a meeting, or gained so much 

 knowledge in so short a time. He must say 

 he did not believe in land-locked Salmon as a 

 distinct species. He believed you could pro- 

 duce a land-locked Salmon from the ordinary 

 fish. He recollected when his uncle, the late 

 Lord Spencer, had the shooting cf Glenloeby, 

 near Kilin, he collected a quantity of par and 

 put them into a small tarn high up on the 

 hills, where they remained for several years. 

 When they went to fish this lake they saw a 

 number of silvery-looking fish of about 2 to 3 

 lbs. in weight, jumping just like Trout would 

 do. He believed those fish were the par which 

 were put in seven years before, which had 

 turned silver, like Salmon. It was hoped they 

 would continue to increase, but they became 

 thinner, and gradually dwindled away. Before 

 sitting down he must say a word in defence of 

 the poor Black Bass, which had been so hardly 

 used. He fully agreed with the remark that 

 they should not he put into Trout streams, 

 where they would be as destructive as Pike, 

 but in many parts of England, particularly in 

 his owu country, there were neither Salmon 

 nor Trout in the streams, only Pike, Perch, 

 and the most abominable of all fish, coarse 

 Bream. In those waters the Black Bass 

 would be a useful addition, he would rise to a 

 liy ; he would take any bait; he would live 

 with the Pike, and he was exceedingly good 

 eating. They contained very few bones, and 

 he thought the flesh was decidedly more like 

 fresh Whiting than any other fish." 



NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 

 LABRADOR.* 



BY W. A. STEARNS. 



There has been much contentfon between 

 the two great powers, France and England, as 

 to who first discovered this great peninsula of 

 Labrador. It was certainly visited by Sebas- 

 tian Cabot in 14D6 ; and more or less explored 

 by the Portuguese Cortereal, who, it is sup- 

 posed, named it. 



The popular tradition of the coast seems to 

 be " that one Labrador, a Basque whaler, from 

 the kingdom ot'Nevarre, in Spain, did pene- 

 trate through the Straits of Belle Isle as far as 

 Labrador Bay, some time about the middle of 

 the fifteenth century, and eventually the whole 

 coast took its name from that coast and 

 harbor." 



*From Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, vol. 

 vi., No. 8. 



