4390 Dublin Natural History Society. 



of 1850, the parr was equally abundant. An experienced salmon-fisher, and employed 

 in the salmon-fisheries of the Laune, states that the barred gravellings are to be found 

 there all the year round of the same growth, — that he considers them to be distinct 

 from the true salmon-fry, which is not to be found at the end of May or the month of 

 June of any size, all the full-grown fry having gone to the sea, while those of the 

 season are too small to be noticed. In order to illustrate that confusion might natu- 

 rally exist with regard to the gravelling, Mr. Andrews exhibited specimens of a series 

 of the following : — Salmon-fry, from the Caragh, Laune, and Bandon rivers ; parr, 

 from the Greece, the Bandon and the Caragh ; young of the white trout, from the 

 Laune and the Bandon rivers; young of the brown trout, from the Caragh; smolts, 

 with migratory dress, from the Laune river. To all these terms the * gravelling' were 

 generally applied. A most intelligent friend of Mr. Williams observes, that on the 

 Bandon river he has marked numbers of gravelling, and that afterwards he has taken 

 them as peal. No doubt among them he may have marked the true salmon-fry, and 

 on their return from the sea have taken them as peal, but no proof can be afforded 

 that all marked underwent the same change. A characteristic mark in the young state 

 of the salmon-fry and the brown trout is the yellowish gray colour of the adipose fin 

 of the former, while in the latter it is tinged and tipped with bright orange. From 

 these specimens exhibited, and from some of the foregoing remarks, a question would 

 arise as to the several states of growth and age of the fry and smolts. To Mr. Shaw, 

 of Drumlanrig, undoubtedly belongs the merit of determining the true state of the 

 fry from the ova; but still his observations have not all been satisfactorily conclusive. 

 The trials and experiments of development carried on artificially in ponds and in 

 tanks may, to a certain extent, illustrate extrication from the ova and changes of the 

 fry state ; but to the habits of an animal peculiarly sensitive through those changes of 

 growth, that growth must be more or less retarded by the deprivation of its natural 

 acts and resources. Mr. Shaw successfully proved the experiment with regard to the 

 character of the fry by taking them direct from the spawning-beds of the salmon ; and 

 to him much is due for so perseveringly pursuing such well-directed inquires, and to 

 the shame of preceding naturalists, who ought to have sifted what really was the young 

 state and habits of a fish of such importance in the economy of our industrial re- 

 sources. His experiments only so far prove what really are the young of the salmon, 

 not that all young states of the Salmonidae, named parr or gravelling, are the young 

 of the salmon. In his treatise, ' Experimental Observations on the Growth of Salmon 

 Fry,' Mr. Shaw mentions, at page 4, ' that after the so-called smolts have descended 

 to the sea, none of the larger can be detected in the rivers.' The idea that the male 

 parr consorts with the female salmon is too delusive to be supported. What attain- 

 able object is advanced by such a departure from all natural laws? That the ova and 

 the milt in a rudimentary state may be detected in the young stages of the true 

 salmon-fry I do not deny ; but that the female salmon, which is incapable of the fe- 

 cundating development of the ova until after the third year of existence and first 

 return and enlarged growth from the sea, can be impregnated by the male of the fry, 

 which had not visited the sea nor undergone those changes necessary for mature 

 growth, appears contrary to all physiological principles. It is true that parr, gravel- 

 ling and small trout, on the spawning-beds of the salmon, during the periods of 

 spawning, may constantly be noticed, for such shoals of the river are their proper lo- 

 cality. O'Gorman, who wrote • The Practice of Angling in Ireland,' a most expe- 

 rienced salmon-fisher, and who now enjoys a fine old age in the town of Ennis, could 



