838 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
returned in the beginning of July, about six weeks 
after their departure, having attained in the sea a weight 
of IV3 kilo; and at the end of July others came back 
which had grown to a weight of nearly 4V 3 kilo a . 
These experiments, however, were not carried out with 
sufficient precautions to render the results convincing 6 . 
The growth of older Salmon is better known, and, 
though not so rapid, is still considerable. In 1859 the 
Duke of Athol marked three Salmon, weighing respec- 
tively 10, ll 1 /,, and 12Va lbs. (4 7, — 5 2 / 3 kilo), then 
on their way to the sea, and took them again six months 
afterwards, as they were returning to fresh water, when 
their weights were respectively 17, 18, and 19 lbs. 
(7 3 / 4 — 87s kilo.) c . Even if these Salmon could have 
attained a breeding condition the same year, we have 
other observations and circumstances which indicate that, 
as a rule, their stay in the sea is longer. In February 
and March Scrope marked several Kelts, weighing 4 
lbs., from the River Shin in Sutherland, and on taking 
them again in June and July of the following year, 
found them to weigh 9 — 14 lbs/ The Salmon which 
descend into the Gulf of Bothnia from the rivers of 
Norrland and Finland, rove from the said gulf down 
to the south of the Baltic. As Gisler observed in 
I752 d , as Stecksen remarked a century later 6 , and as 
Malmgren quite recently ascertained 7 , in the rivers of 
Norrland and Finland Salmon are often caught which 
have hooks in the jaws or stomach that they have torn 
loose from long-lines in the south of the Baltic, even 
on the Pomeranian coast. Journeys of such length pre- 
sumably demand too long a time for a Salmon to de- 
scend early in spring into the Baltic, exhausted by the 
exertions of the spawning, and to return the same year, 
even at so late a season as June — August, and ascend 
one of the rivers in breeding- condition. To this we 
should add that in the south of the Baltic line-fishing 
for Salmon is practised chiefly, if not exclusively, in 
autumn and winter, so that we have all reason to be- 
lieve that these Salmon must have wintered in the 
south. It is also quite possible that a sojourn in the 
brackish water of the Gulf of Bothnia — as in the fresh 
water of Fake Wener — can replace the year’s stay in 
fresh water previous to the spawning, required by the 
so-called Winter Salmon of the Rhine. This is all the 
more probable now that Mr. Andersson’s experiments 
have shown (see Fonnberg, Bill. Vet.-Akad. Hand]., 
Bd. 18 (1892), Afd. IV, No. 2, p. 10) that the gene- 
rative organs can ripen, even if the fish be detained 
in the Gulf of Bothnia while its fellows are preparing 
to spawn in the rivers. 
The Blanklaxar thus pass the greater part of their 
marine life and, at least in certain cases, a considerable 
portion of their life in fresh water, without the deve- 
lopment necessary for breeding and without the cha- 
racters that mark their spawning-dress. This is also 
true of the Gralaxar, with the single exception that, 
for the most part, they live between the spawning pe- 
riods in lakes. Yet it is no very simple task to ex- 
plain all the names which these fishes have received 
in different dresses and at different stages of sexual 
maturity. 
Siebold advanced the opinion g that the “Silver 
Salmon” ( Schwebforelle , Maiforelle ) which are found in 
the alpine regions of Central Europe, are persistently 
sterile Gralaxar ( Grundforelle , Lacks f or elle); and that 
such individuals do occur, is also maintained by Fatio 
in Switzerland. But Widegren showed that the cha- 
racters of the former are inconstant, being more and 
more approximated to the Grdlax type as their sexual 
organs are developed, and that they probably do attain 
maturity, “though 6 several years may possibly elapse 
before a sterile individual becomes fertile and acquires 
the characters typical of the generative power.” On 
closer examination of this so-called sterility, however, 
we find 4 that it is attended with characters which are 
a combination of Blanklax and Grdlax characters — the 
alleged difference between “fertile” and “sterile” Gra- 
laxar is really the same as that between Gralaxar and 
Blanklaxar — and the same combination of characters 
occurs, as is natural, in hybrids between Salmo solar 
a Brown, The Natural History of the Salmon etc., pp. 49 and 52. 
b Russel, The Salmon , p. 54. 
c Day, 1. c., p. 95. 
d Vet.-Akad. Hand], 1752, p. 100. 
e In Nilsson, Skand. Fn., Fisk., p. 381. 
f Bohuslansk Fiskeritidskrift, H. 1 — 3, p. 50. In the Great Belt Fiedler (Nordisk Aarsskrift for Fiskeri, 1884, p. 24) found a 
similar brass hook in the mouth of a Salmon caught in April south of Corsoer. 
g Sussivasserfische Mittel.europas, p. 301. 
h Ofvers. Vet.-Akad. Forh. 1864, p. 292. 
1 Smitt, Riksm. Salmon, 1. c., pp. 83 etc. 
