Fishes. 4793 



a few common trout : on every hypothesis, save one, the absence 

 of the parr in these and the adjoining streams is inexplicable : 

 the fishing took place in May; the sea trout and smolts were 

 descending to the sea : the net took everything to the minnow, 

 yet no parrs were to be found : on one hypothesis alone is this 

 explicable, namely, that the young of the sea trout, hatched from 

 the ova deposited in November of the preceding year, had all 

 become smolts, and were proceeding to the sea. If the age of these 

 smolts had been two years or even one year, the young fish, in their 

 generic or parr dress, must have been found in the streams and pools : 

 nothing of the sort occurred: had the smolts, then and there found, 

 being the females of one year, the males of the same age, but less 

 in size, not as yet changed into smolts, must have been discovered in 

 the net : in a fishing of some miles nothing of the kind appeared. 



3. That these fish, called parr, are male and female ; that in the 

 female the roe remains always at its minimum ; in the male, on the 

 contrary, the milt enlarges remarkably during the autumn and winter 

 months, and not infrequently is found enlarged at all times of the year. 



4. That, in addition to river trout of various sizes, and of parr, 

 which never exceed eight or nine inches in length, there appear 

 suddenly as it were, in the streams, in May, thousands of a small fish 

 (the smolt) covered with silvery scales, which fish is presumed to be, 

 and has been proved to be, the young of the salmon and sea trout. 

 It was first remarked by Mr. Hutchinson, of Carlisle, in 1782, and 

 subsequently by all who observed what happened to the smolt when 

 kept for some time and roughly handled, that the scales being rubbed 

 off, the smolt assumes the appearance of a parr; but Mr. Hutchinson 

 did not think that this proved the smolt and parr identical. What is 

 the age of these fish — of the May smolts ? The whole question of the 

 protection of the salmon is wrapped up in this question. The question 

 of its identity with the parr is a distinct question ; the presence of 

 the parr-markings to be discovered under the scales proves nothing 

 specifically, since these are generic characters common to the whole 

 natural family of the Salmonidae at a certain period of their growth 

 or development to trout and salmon of every kind. 



5. It was asserted by Willoughby (1686), and the assertion has not 

 been refuted, that with the developed milt of a male parr, 6 or 7 

 inches in length, the ova of a full-grown salmon may be fecundated. 

 If we adopt the theory, that under every circumstance the parr is 

 simply a young salmon or salmon trout, as the case may be, the 

 astounding physiological fact first announced by Willoughby still 



