Fishes. 7987 



that the young salmon appeared in the rivers in May, and quitted them 

 for the sea, along with the spawned fish generally during that month ; 

 that the young return during the same summer and autumn as grilses, 

 that is, salmon of considerable size ; and that whilst in fresh-water 

 the grown salmon constantly deteriorates. 



In addition, there was a general belief that the fish called parr* was 

 a peculiar species of the salmon-kind, although Willughby had proved 

 experimentally, or was held to have done so, that with the milt of the 

 male parr the ova of the grown salmon may be impregnated ; and 

 Mr. Hutchinson, of Carlisle, in 1786, had scraped off the scales from 

 a May smolt, and shown that underneath these scales the fish precisely 

 resembled what we call parr. It was also generally admitted that pan- 

 were never found but in rivers frequented by salmon or salmon-trout, 

 a statement I also firmly believed in until I had fished the Kale, the 

 Tyne and a small stream in the vale of Guisborough. Since the period 

 of the publication of my earliest memoirs on these subjects in the 

 ' Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,' Mr. Young, of Inver- 

 shin, has proved experimentally — 1st. That the smolt (young salmon) 

 of May descends to the sea and returns from the sea to the river in June 

 or early in July — i. e. in from six weeks to two months — a well-grown 

 fish of several pounds weight. This is certain : its growth from a smolt 

 a few inches in length and a few ounces in weight to a three, four, five 

 or even eight-pound fish is rapid beyond what could be imagined. 

 2nd. The same careful observer has proved that, whilst an inhabitant 

 of the fresh waters, the salmon does not feed, but loses daily in weight 

 and quality, and would perish but for its return to the ocean and to 

 the use of that food which I proved many years ago to be essential to 

 its well being. But there remains still to be solved the two difficult 

 questions — namely, what is the age of the May smolt? what is the 

 winter parr ? — the fish which I proved, by direct and oft-repeated 

 observation, to be present in salmon rivers during every month of the 

 year; to have the strange peculiarity of a milt developed in the male 

 and an undeveloped roe in the female ; to be found in every part of the 

 river, from its source to its embouchure ; and to be seemingly absent 

 in some rivers, though frequented by salmon-trout, if not by salmon ? 

 The question of the age of the May smolt was some time ago con- 

 sidered as settled by the Drumlanrig experiments; I never did, and 

 appeal to all I have written and said on the subject as proofs of this 

 assertion ; I knew these experiments not to be trustworthy, though 

 they obtained the approbation of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. By 



* In Annandale the fishermen always held the parr to be a young- salmon. 



