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XXVII. — Account of Experimental Observations on the Development and Growth 

 of Salmon-Fry, from the exclusion of the Ova to the age of tmo years. By 

 Mr John Shaw, Drumlanrig. Communicated by James Wilson, Esq. F.R.S.E. 



(Read 16th December 1839.) 



" Experience once recognised as the fountain of all our knowledge of nature, it follows that in the 

 study of nature and its laws, we ought at once to make up our minds to dismiss as idle prejudices, or at 

 least suspend as premature, any preconceived notions of what might or ought to be the order of nature 

 in any proposed case, and content ourselves with observing, as a plain matter of fact, what is." — Sir John 

 Herschel's Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy. 



That the facts which I communicate regarding the natural history of the 

 salmon in its earlier stages, may not appear altogether undeserving of considera- 

 tion, I may premise that my remarks have not proceeded from hasty or imper- 

 fect observation, but from the experience of many years sedulously devoted to 

 the subject, the whole of my life, with the exception of a few seasons, having been 

 spent on the banks of streams where salmon are in the habit of depositing their 

 spawn, and where of course the parr is likewise abundant. My opportunities of 

 observation have thus been as ample, as my efforts have been unremitting and 

 laborious, to discover the true history of this invaluable species. I shall here 

 present a brief abstract of my earlier proceedings in relation to the subject.* 



I had long been of opinion, in opposition to the sentiments entertained by 

 the majority of authors, that the fish commonly called j^arr, was the natural pro- 

 duce of the salmon, and that all recorded attempts to trace the history of the 

 latter fish were fanciful in their nature, and delusive in their results. To enable 

 me to watch the progressive growth of parr, I caught seven of these small fishes 

 on the 11th of July 1833, and placed them in a pond supplied by a stream of 



* My first paper, entitled " An Account of some Experiments and Observations on the Parr, and 

 on the Ova of the Salmon, proving the Parr to be the young of the Salmon," was published in the Edin- 

 burgh New Philosophical Journal for July 18.36, vol. xxi. p. 99. My second paper, under the title 

 of " Experiments on the Development and Growth of the Fry of the Salmon, from the exclusion of the 

 Ovum to the age of six months," was read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the 18th December 

 1837, and was published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for January 1838, vol. xxiv. 

 p. 165. My third and concluding communication, which the Society now honours by its reception, 

 contains an account of the continuance and confirmation of these experiments, with an introductory re- 

 ference to the papers above named. 



VOL. XIV. PART II. 5 C 



