July 13. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
283 
don, Laune, and the Caragh rivers, we find great distinction 
of development and markings. In the true salmon-fry, the 
head more blunt; broader on the neck and shoulders ; gill- 
covers marked similar with spots silvery gray ; preoperculum 
much rounded; external edge soft; back dusky ash colour, 
with numerous minute dark spots, which do not go beneath 
the lateral line; nine bright orange, or approaching to ver¬ 
milion-coloured spots along the lateral line, equalling in 
number the transverse bars : pictoral fins long in propor¬ 
tion, yellowish white, tinged with black dusky spots, gene¬ 
rally absent in the dorsal fin ; caudal fin largely developed ; 
ventral and anal fins yellowish white; belly white. The 
body is narrower in proportion to its length than that of the 
parr, and teeth in a more rudimentary state. I am not pre¬ 
pared to admit the parr being a distinct species, for it is the 
young state of the fish, and all the specimens of the salmonida 
that I have obtained are more or less in the young state 
characterised by those transverse bars. In the rivers where 
it frequents the parr is abundant in all seasons, in the same 
stages of growth; and even when the memorable floods of 
the winter of 1810 were supposed to cause the scarcity 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 con¬ 
siders 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 naturally 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. 'Wil¬ 
liams observes, that on the Bandon liver ho 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 arti¬ 
ficially in ponds and in tanks may, to a certain extent, illus¬ 
trate 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 successf ully 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 inquiries, 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 resources. His 
experiments only so far prove what really are the young of 
the salmon, not that all young states of the salmonidfe, 
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 attainable 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 young 
stages of the true salmon-fry I do not deny; but that the 
female salmon, which is incapable of the fecundating deve¬ 
lopment of the ova until after the third year of existenco and 
first return and enlarged growth from the sea, can be im¬ 
pregnated by the male of the fry, which had not visited the 
Sea., nor undergone those changes necessary for mature 
growth, appear contrary to all physiological principles. It 
is true that parr, gravelling, and small trout, on the spawn¬ 
ing beds of the salmon, during the periods of spawning, may 
constantly be noticed, for such shoals of the river are their 
proper locality. O'Gorman, who wrote “ The Practice of 
Angling in Ireland,” a most experienced salmon-fisher, and 
who enjoys a fine old age in the town of Ennis, could never 
be persuaded of the pan- state of the salmon, but that all 
the young retreated to the sea the first season of their exis¬ 
tence. My own observations and inquiries would lead mo 
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 thirteen or fourteen months. In some 
rivers the fry are in a more advanced state in the winter and 
springmonths than in others, that is, undergoing earlier extri¬ 
cation 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 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, 
I 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, I 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 
Goulborne. 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 perfectly 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 sub¬ 
ject 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 ex¬ 
trication 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 Michl. Kennedy from the lake 
below the bridge and fall, under Dunbeg Castle. The rivers 
Creegli, Annageeragh, and Annagh, which I have fished, are 
all excellent in their seasons for salmon and white trout. 
In the little river of Monmore, which runs through the 
great bog of that name, salmon aud white trout run up the 
stream in the autumn floods, but I never recollect meeting 
the gravelling 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 a reference 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 together, each occasionally engaged, but more 
especially the female, in the excavation of the furrow, or 
channel, in which the ova is to be deposited, and in this 
labour their principal exertions are snouting the gravel. 
The clear and slioaler beds of a river, where it is necessary 
for the salmon to select the deposit-beds for the due matu¬ 
rating 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 story of Remy, the fisherman of the Vosges, 
pursuing his patient watchings on the habits of the trout, in 
the bleak nights of November, and which reflect lustre op 
his powors of observation, is pleasingly told. No such en¬ 
durance is necessary to mark the operations of the parent 
salmon. Some have observed that the hook of the male 
salmon serves some purpose in the spawning operations. 
