184 
SALMON. 
23rd. of November, of pressing some grains of roe from a 
female, and milt from a male, which were placed with others 
that had been deposited voluntarily, and to these more were 
added at the beginning of December; but although thus shed 
at different times all of them shewed very visible signs of life 
at one date — the following 19th. of February. On the corres 
ponding day of March these young fish had increased much 
in size, the degree in which they had advanced being visible 
according to the temperature of the weather. On the 22nd. 
of that month the eyes were plainly to he seen, and for a 
considerable time afterwards, as in the generality of fishes, 
they were proportionally of large size. In some of these 
young the outward covering had burst, leaving the bag which 
contains the nourishing contents of the egg and abdominal 
organs still attached to the throat, where it forms the larger 
portion of the bulk; but as the yoke becomes absorbed these 
organs also become gathered up closer into the proper cavity, 
and in the present instance this was accomplished on the I8th. 
of April, when the fish had grown to three fourths of an 
A lengthened account of the development of the embryo is 
given, among others, by Ephemera; but to be more brief, 
before the length is attained as we give it, the body is 
slender, and when not entirely extricated from the egg the 
tail is bent down into a curve; and afterwards, for a time, 
what at last becomes the adipose fin, is long and united to 
the tail, and the latter being joined also to the anal fin the 
whole resembles much more what is the natural structure of 
the eel, excluding the rays, than what afterwards is changed 
into the proper character of the Salmon. At this time also the 
head is round and blunt, with a depression before the eyes, 
and the lower jaw is rather the shortest. But changes are in 
rapid progress, and as the fish becomes able to move about, 
the growth increases, and there is a display of marks of colour 
on the sides; which assume the form of bars from the back 
downward; a condition that is common to several species of 
this family, and so long as it exists it is exceedingly ddficult, 
if not impossible, to distinguish between them. The existence 
of these bands on the side has caused the young fish which 
bear them to be termed Parrs, and it is received as a truth 
