Dublin Natural History Society. 4391 



never he persuaded of the parr state of the salmon, hut that all the young retreated to 

 the sea the first season of their existence. My own observations and inquiries would 

 lead me to consider that from the period of the extrication of the fry from the ova to 

 the change to its smolt or migratory state would be about 13 or 14 months. In some 

 rivers the fry are in a more advanced state in the winter and spring months than in 

 others, that is, undergoing earlier extrication from the ova, according to the temperature 

 of localities or to early or late breeding fish. Hence the varied growth throughout the 

 summer and autumn ; and I further consider that the great bulk of these assume the 

 migratory state in the following spring, descending early in April and May to the sea. 

 That they assume the silvery scales and full migratory dress in the higher portions of 

 the river, before their movement to the sea, I have frequently detected. Referring to 

 my notes, T find that some years since, when fishing in the county of Clare, about the 

 first week in May, in company with the late James o'Gorman, T met the salmon-fry in 

 abundance, with the silvery scales or migratory coat, in that part of the Cooraclare 

 river between the bridges of Ballydoneen and Goulbourne. Some dozens were taken 

 in a part of the stream that ran rapidly over a rocky and gravelly bed which high 

 banks overhung. It was close to a spawning-bed of the salmon. These fish had per- 

 fectly assumed the silvery scales of the smolt, tapering in form, and with pectoral and 

 caudal fins largely developed, the terminal parts tinged with a dark shade. Subsequent 

 observations and application to the subject influenced me to consider that they were 

 the young of the ova of the previous year, and that they had only attained their 13th 

 or 14th month, their migration to the sea being between the 11th and 14th month 

 from the period of extrication from the ova. The river of Cooraclare, which assumes 

 the name of Dunbeg, where it falls into the Atlantic Ocean, in the little estuary of 

 that name, is famous for its salmon. In August, 1835, I saw in one haul 104 salmon 

 and 200 white trout, taken by Michael Kennedy from the lake below the bridge and 

 fall, under Dunbeg Castle. The rivers Creegh, Annageeragh, and Annagh, which I 

 have fished, are all excellent in their seasons for salmon and white trout. Iu the little 

 river of Monmore, which runs through the great bog of that name, salmon and white 

 trout run up the stream in the autumn floods, but I never recollect meeting the gra- 

 velling there with the markings and bright hue of the parr. It is not my intention 

 now to enter into a statement of the salmon-fisheries, but merely to refer to some 

 of the observations made by Mr. Ffennell in this Society. At the meeting in April, 

 Mr. Ffennell mentioned that at the approach of the spawning-season the male salmon 

 invariably first ascend the rivers from the sea. It is singular that authors have given 

 the precedence to the females, both to the salmon and to the trout. Allowing either 

 the priority, experience has shown that the parent fish are on the spawning-beds to- 

 gether, each occasionally engaged, but more especially the female, in the excavation 

 of the furrow or channel where the ova are to be deposited, and in this labour their 

 principal exertions are snouting the gravel. The clear and shoaler beds of a river, 

 where it is necessary for the salmon to select the deposit-beds for the due maturating 

 of the ova, can be quietly watched and all their operations noticed. In the Wandle 

 Mr. Gurney has seen the large trout raise ridges of gravel, and has remarked their 

 noses or snouts to be lacerated by the work. The romantic history of Remy, the fish- 

 erman of the Vosges, pursuing his patient watchings on the habits of the trout, in the 

 bleak nights of November, and which reflect lustre on his powers of observation, is 

 pleasingly told. No such endurance is necessary to mark the operations of the parent 

 salmon. Some have observed that the hook of the male salmon serves some purpose 



