4988 Fish 



les. 



these experiments it was attempted to be shown that the ova of the 

 salmon deposited, let us say in November, 1850, left the gravel in 

 April, 185], and continued, under the form of little parrs, during the 

 whole of 1851, until the month of May of 1852, when, being trans- 

 formed into May smolts, they left the river for the ocean. This 

 theory, for such it was, has been completely refuted — 1st, by 

 Mr. Young, of Invershin ; and, 2ndly, by the experiments now 

 being performed at Stormontfield, in Perthshire, by my friends, 

 Dr. Esdaile and Mr. Buist: many thousand ova of salmon were 

 placed under the gravel in November and December, 1853: in April 

 and May, 1854, the young from these ova had quitted the gravel, and 

 were at large in the boxes prepared for their reception ; some were 

 allowed to escape from the boxes also provided for them, they having, 

 from the period of their birth and appearance in the waters, been con- 

 fined in boxes for nearly six weeks; at this time they measured about 

 an inch and a half in length ; that is to say, that having been confined 

 in boxes from the period of their birth in April and May until June, 

 they grew only about half an inch : the exact date of the admission to 

 the ponds is not stated, a circumstance to be regretted in the history 

 of a fish which we know can grow and does grow, when at liberty, 

 from two or three ounces to four pounds weight in five or six weeks ; 

 but during the five or six weeks they remained in the boxes they did 

 not grow, and I confess that I should have felt surprised if they had 

 grown. From the June of 1854 they repoained in the ponds until the 

 spring (again it is not stated at what time) of 1855; by this time they 

 had grown to three or four inches in length, but had not altered in 

 other respects: on the 2nd of May, 1855, they were compared with 

 smolts in the river, descending to the sea ; they were thought not to be 

 yet ready for their migration seaward ; the two-year theory men said 

 that they would require another year in the ponds, and so they would 

 had the ponds been as small as they were at Drumlanrig; but un- 

 fortunately for their theory, on the 17th of May, 1855, it was found 

 that vast numbers of these young fish had become metamorphosed into 

 smolts, and it was agreed on to open the pond-sluice and allow them 

 to depart for the river and the ocean. They did not, however, com- 

 mence their voyage until the 24th of May : about half became smolts, 

 and went off to the river, and, it is presumed, to the sea; some were 

 marked in order to ascertain if they reached the ocean ; many of 

 these must have done so, for they returned to the river in from six 

 weeks to two months grown fish, from three and a half to eight or 

 nine pounds in weight. 



