232 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
memorable floods of the winter of 1849 were supposed to cause the scarcity of 1850, 
the parr was equally abundant. An experienced salmon-fisher, 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 considers 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 species 
the term u gravelling” was generally applied. A most intelligent friend of Mr. 
Williams observes, that on the Bandon river he 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 charac¬ 
teristic mark in the young state of the salmon-fry and the brown trout is the yel¬ 
lowish-gray colour of the adipose fin of the former, while in the latter it is tinged 
and tipped with 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 stage of the fry from the ova ; but still his observations 
have not all been satisfactorily conclusive. The trials and experiments of develop¬ 
ment, carried on artificially in ponds and in tanks, may, to a certain extent, 
illustrate extrication from the ova and changes of the fry state ; but in 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 successfully 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 pre¬ 
ceding 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 Salmonidte, named parr or gravelling, are the young of the 
salmon. In this treatise— u 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 parr 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 the young stages of the 
true salmon-fry I do not deny; but that the female salmon, which is said to be in¬ 
capable of the fecundating development of the ova until after the third year of ex¬ 
istence, and first return and enlarged growth from the sea, can be impregnated by the 
male of the fry, which had not visited the sea nor undergone those changes necessary 
for mature growth, appears contrary to all physiological principles. It is true that 
parr, gravelling, and small trout, on the spawning-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 u The Practice of Angling in Ireland,” a 
most experienced salmon-fisher, and who now enjoys a fine old age in the town of 
Ennis, could never be persuaded of the parr state of the salmon, but 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 
thirteen or fourteen 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 extrica¬ 
tion 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 hulk of these assume the migratory state in the 
following spring, descending early in April and May to the sea. That they assume 
