Dublin Natural History Society. 4389 



into the river Barrow, are famous for their excellent trout; the former, a lively stream, 

 rapid over clean gravelly beds, produces abundance of bright and well-fed trout. Al- 

 though the day was in every way unsuited to the wishes of a fly-fisher, we, however, 

 soon obtained the object of our search. Many years have passed since my former visits, 

 but there was the same purpling restless stream, the banks, the untopped wall leading 

 to the old bridge, unchanged and untouched as it were but yesterday. Carlow is de- 

 lightfully rural; its avenue-like roads, bordered with tall fragrant hawthorn, made us 

 buoyantly feel the change from city life. Besides, to the naturalist, every step afforded 

 interest — along the banks of the river the Ephemerae and the Phryganeae, as they sud- 

 denly emerged from the pupa state, almost as suddenly merged into the stomach of 

 some lively trout — the light and the dark ash-fox, brown and gray Coughlins, and the 

 hawthorn flies, as they floated along, or fluttered about the stream, were all the objects 

 of attraction. The question which we sought the elucidation of, was not as to whether 

 salmon do or do not enter the Greece from the Barrow, or whether the shallow beds of 

 that little stream are, or are not, suited for spawning-ground, but with regard to the 

 distinctive characters of the parr existing there, its comparison with that described in 

 Yarrell, and with that of the true salmon-fry. The local terms, lasp rings, gravel- 

 lasprings, salmon-pink, fingerlings, gravellings, parr, and samlet, have all been made 

 of too general application, and no proper separation has been drawn to distinguish 

 habits or characteristics, but to confound all as gravellings, and gravellings to be the 

 parr, the young of the salmon. My friend Williams had argued that the gravelling 

 that he had obtained in some of the rivers of Cork and of Wicklow, were not the young 

 of the salmon, and so far he was right, for neither were those we obtained in the 

 Greece. These latter were identical with the accurate descriptions given by Yarrell, 

 by Dr. Heyshaw, and by several authors — the head being of a greenish ash- 

 colour; back and sides above the lateral line dusky, or olivaceous brown, marked with 

 numerous dark spots, bordering the lateral line a series of carmine or vermilion- 

 coloured spots ; belly silvery white, and the body marked with nine or ten bluish- 

 coloured transverse bars ; gill-covers have generally two dark-coloured spots, one more 

 strongly marked than the other ; dorsal fin with a few dusky spots ; pectoral fins larger 

 than those of the common trout, yellowish white, anal and ventral fins yellowish, 

 caudal fin much forked ; body deeper in proportion to its length ; general length from 

 four to six inches. Now, on comparing these specimens with those of the true salmon- 

 fry, obtained from the Bandon, Laune, and the Caragh rivers, we find great distinc- 

 tion of development and markings. In the true salmon-fry, the head more blunt ; 

 broader on the neck and shoulders ; gill-covers marked similar with spots silvery gray ; 

 preoperculum much rounded; external edge soft; back dusky ash-colour, with nume- 

 rous minute dark spots, which do not go beneath the lateral line ; nine bright orange, 

 or approaching to vermilion-coloured spots along the lateral line, equalling in number 

 the transverse bars; pectoral fins long in proportion, yellowish white, tinged with 

 black dusky spots, generally absent in the dorsal fin; caudal fin largely developed ; 

 ventral and anal fins yellowish white ; belly white. The body is narrower in propor- 

 tion to its length than that of the parr, and the teeth in a more rudimentary state. I 

 am not prepared to admit the parr being a distinct species, for it is the young state of 

 the fish, and all the specimens of the Salmonidae that I have obtained are more or less 

 in the young state characterised by those transverse bars. In the rivers where it fre- 

 quents the parr is abundant in all seasons, in the same stages of growth; and even 

 when the memorable floods of the winter of 1849 were supposed to cause the scarcity 



xii. 2 i 



