r: New York State College of Agriculture At Cornell University Ithaca, N. Y. Library ^2 ox^ "^y Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924081096954 BKITISH MD IRISH SALMONID^. BY FEANCIS DAY, CLE., F.L.S., & F.Z.S. KNIGHT OF THE CBOWN OP ITALY, HON. MEMBBB DEUTSCHEB FISCHEEEI-VEEEIN, AND OP THE AMERICAN FISHEEIES' SOCIETY, PRESIDENT OF THE CHELTENHAM NATURAL SCIENCE SOCIETY, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE OOTSWOLD NATURALISTS* FIELD CLUE, ETC., DEPUTY SUEaEON-GBNEEAL MADRAS AEMY, (eETIEED,) AND FORMERLY INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF FISHERIES IN INDIA. IN ONE VOLUME. WITH TWELVE PLATES. WILLIAMS AND NOEGATB, U, HENRIETTA STREET, CO VENT GARDEN, LONDON ; AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 1887. LONDON : Q. NOEMAN AND SON, PKINTEKB, HAET STEBET, OOVENT GAEDEN. SIR JAMES RAMSAY GIBSON MAITLAND, BART., F.LS. & F.Z.S., WHOSE PEACTICAL KNOWLEDGE AND UNWEARIED ENERGY HAS ENABLED HIM TO INAUGURATE A FISH-FAEM AT HOWIETOUN 0¥ UNEIVALLBD EMINENCE, BOTH AS A SCHOOL FOE FISH-CULTUEE AND ICHTHTOLOGICAL RESEARCH, THIS WORK ON THE BRITISH AND IRISH SALMONID^ IS DEDICATED BT HIS OBLIGED FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. PEEFACE. So MANY publications upon the subject of the British Salmonidas, treated by Fishery Inspectors, Zoologists, Field Naturalists and Fish-culturists, have been published during recent years that it appears almost presumptuous adding another to their number. But owing to the opportunities so freely given me by Sir James Maitland, Bart., for collecting information at his unrivalled Howietoun fish-farm, and his kindness in instituting many and costly experiments among this class of fishes when he deemed them likely to obtain valuable results, I have considered it might not be inappropriate to lay those results along with other investigations before the public, in the hope that they may conduce to further research. It has been increasingly evident to me for some years that one of the main reasons militating against the successful cultivation of trout (and possibly char) in this kingdom by riparian proprietors, has been the confusion into which these forms have been thrown by naturalists, who, in order to give greater accuracy to their descriptive treatises on Museum specimens, have subdivided them into many species. The consequence of this has been, that fish-culturists who have accepted the statements made, have been constantly attempt- ing to introduce new species into their waters in order to improve the native race. For the zoologists who have been most active in raising local varieties to specific rank have been compelled to admit VI PEEFACE. that they all very commonly interbreed, but that the young revert to one of the original parents. External form or colour, or internal organization (as the number of caecal appendages), have been adduced as reasons for considering certain trout as distinct species. In the following pages, however, I have brought forward instances which, I believe, show that all these appearances are consequent upon local surroundings, and how such may be modified at will by changing the abode of the fish. That hybrids do occur among Salmonidas has been known in this country for upwards of two centuries, and Sir James Maitland's experiments distinctly prove that they may be fertile for, at least, three generations, but time has yet to show for how long this wUl continue, and, likewise, what the result of hybridization may be. So far as investigations have gone they tend to demonstrate that hybrid races do not revert to the original colours of either parent. Artificial fish breeding has given conclusive evidence that with the maturity of the mother the size of the eggs of these fishes augment, and that the progeny obtained from the largest ova produce finer and more quickly-growing offspring than in such as are raised from smaller eggs, or those given by younger or more badly nourished mothers. This is a subject of great importance to the fish-culturist, as showing that if he requires fine races pedigree breeding must be resorted to ; and that skill, combined with oppor- tunity, can produce far larger trout than can be obtained by simply collecting eggs from these fish while living in their native streams. It also tends towards the conclusion that a race may deteriorate when they are the oflfspring of young parents. Riparian proprietors probably may improve their local races by the introduction of fresh blood, but when numerous small and possibly lean trout are present in a stream or lake, such may be consequent upon insufficiency of food caused by its absence or due PREFACE. VU to there being too many trout present to prey upon it. Mere numbers in a fishery do not invariably give a true indication of its condition. In the following pages I have collected, and, so far as space would admit, have inserted the opinions which have been held from time to time in this kingdom upon the Salmoriidse, and in order not to confuse them with the text, have placed them in the form of notes. Many of the experiments or investigations, with the evidence on which my conclusions were made, will be found fully detailed in the columns of The Field, or in The Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, to which the reader must be referred. The cause mentioned below,* and which has not (so far as I am aware) yet been removed, must be my apology for the illustrations having been drawn by myself. The fish were coloured fi-om nature by Miss Florence Woolward, whose accuracy in delineation needs no remark as it speaks for itself Also I have to thank Messrs. Hanhart as the chromolithographers, and Messrs. Norman & Son as the printers of this publication. I must offer my best thanks to Sir James Maitland without whose assistance this work would never have seen the light; he has afforded me every information during the course of my inquiries, and furnished me with specimens for examination and delineation. * From the Secretary to the Trustees of the British Museum : — " Dear Sir, Having referred your letter of the 13th to Dr. Giinther, I learn from him that as both you and he are engaged in preparing a publication on British Fishes, he thinks it inconvenient and against the interests of either work that the same artist should be employed on both. He has therefore intimated to Mr. Mintern, that if he is working cuts for you, he will engage another artist for himself. This is a matter which cannot be considered to concern the Trustees. — Yours, &o., B. Bond. August 20th, 1880." Seven years have now elapsed since Dr. Giinther, Keeper of the Zoological Collection of the British Museum, induced Mr. Mintern to break his agreement and cease engraving for me on the above plea. Dr. Giinther's work, stated then to be in the course of preparation, has not yet been advertised ! VUl PKESACE. While Mr. J. Willis-Bund, M.A., has given me the opportunity of investigating some Cardiganshire streams, and furnished me with considerable information during the progress of my work through the press. Mr. Andrews has likewise helped me in my inquiries at his famous fish-farm at Guildford. In short, many whose names will be found mentioned through- out this work, have assisted me in various ways, and to all of whom I tender my hearty acknowledgments. Likewise I have to give my sincere thanks to my old and valued fi:iend A. C. Brisbane Neill, Esq., of the Madras Medical Service (retired), for his invaluable help in carrying this work through the press. Cheltenham, September 15th, 1887. SALMONID^ GEEAT BEITAIN AND lEBLAND. -**, J:»I£alv?•tf?^^r*,- 'J c'STr. :,^£^ ,:*aa_S5SF>« SALMON PASS. 1 * SALMONIDiS OF BRITAIN. Family— SALMONID.^, MUUer. Pseudobranchiae present. The margin of the upper jaw formed mesially by the premaxillaries, and laterally by the maxillaries. Barbels absent. Two dorsal flns, the anterior containing rays : the posterior, which is the smaller, being adipose. Pyloric appendages, as a rule, present and usually numerous. Body scaled, head scaleless. Air bladder large, simple, and with a pneumatic duct. The ova pass into the cavity of the abdomen before being extruded. This family is characterized, among bony or teleostean fishes, by the large size of its blood discs. Geological appearance. — No fossils representing fresh-water forms have as yet been discovered ; bnt the marine smelt, Osmerus, is found in the greensand of Iben- bnsen and the schists of Glaris and Licata. A species of Mallotus is also present in the clay nodules in Greenland, whose age has not been determined. Some supposed marine forms have likewise been recorded from the chalk at Lewes, co-existing with fossils of the genns Beryx, and they have been located in the genera Osmeroides, Acrognathus, and Aulolepis. OeograpMcal distribution. — The Salmonidas consist of marine and fresh-water fishes, the latter being normally restricted to the Arctic and temperate portions of the Northern hemisphere with the exception of the genns Betropinna, found in New Zealand rivers. Absent from India and Africa, they have during the present century been artificially distributed to many portions of the globe where they arc not known to have existed previously. In the Northern hemisphere the fresh- water forms are present between the latitudes 45" and 75°, and one species has been captured so far north as 80°. In fact they are residents of cold and tem- perate waters and do not normally extend to where the water is very warm. The species of some of the genera, as Argentina, which are included in this family, do not enter fresh waters : others again as the smelt, Osmerus, ascend so far as the tide reaches but rarely beyond, while the salmon is an anadromous form which passes up rivers even to their higher portions and here it forms its nest, deposits its eggs, and its young are hatched and reared. Trout, char, and grayling may pass their entire existence in fresh waters, but all these forms have been captured in salt water.* Consequently it becomes evident that some species of the same genus may be living in the sea while others are exclusively resident in fresh waters, demonstrating how anadromous 6sh may change into resident fresh- water ones. Also in certain species, as the common trout, some examples may be found residing a great part of the year in fresh or in brackish waters, others in fresh. We are thus able to follow an unbroken chain connecting sea forms of the salmon family with others that appear to normally pass their entire existence in fresh water, but which latter have in every genus furnished examples that have been captured in the ocean. This gives rise to the inquiry whether the Salmonidse are descended from a marine or fresh-water ancestry ? a question of importance to the fish culturist should he be debating upon the possibility or rather probability of successfully rearing and subsequently breeding salmon in fresh waters without deterioration, provided they are unable to migrate to the sea. That strictly fresh-water fishes are intolerant of saline water is well known, thus carps are deleteriously affected, usually dying on the addition of salt water, * Specimens of several deep sea genera belonging to this family have been secured by our exploring expeditions. MARINE ANCESTRY. 5 and this intolerance acts as a barrier against their diffusion. Consequently if the inland waters of oceanic islands are examined true fresh-water forms are absent, unless at some former period a land connection had existed with a continent or these fishes had obtained access accidentally or been imported by man. But there are certain forms of fish life in our fresh waters which are evidently descended from a marine ancestry as eels or perches, and these are much more tolerant of salt water than are those which are of purely fresh-water descent. But while it is difficult to show fresh-water forms that have changed to a marine residence, it is very easy to find sea fishes as temporarily or permanently residing in fresh waters. Malmgren drew attention to certain marine species as the^ four-horned bullhead, Oottus quadricornis, a sucker, Liparis barbatus, and a variety of the common herring, Glupea harengus, being present in the northern portion of the Baltic, where the sea is now least saline, whereas they seem to be absent from its southern extremity where they might well be looked for had they obtained an entrance from the North Sea. These forms are smaller when residing in the Baltic than are those of the same species living in the Arctic Ocean, and it has been reasonably concluded that they are the remnants of a fauna which at one period was common to both localities. During the latter portion of the glacial epoch most of Finland and the middle of Sweden were submerged, so the Baltic must have been a gulf of the glacial ocean, for the entrance to the south at the Cattegat had not then been opened. As the Scandinavian continent became elevated, the Baltic became cut off by this raised land from the Arctic Ocean to the north, but it opened to the south through the Cattegat into the North Sea, and its fish-fauna even now retains representatives of its former marine northern glacial fauna, as well as such immigrants as have arrived through the Sound.* The foregoing must be classed among instances in which marine forms have inadvertently become imprisoned in water which has steadily changed its character from true saline to that which is only a little more than brackish ; here some live and breed, one can scarcely add thrive. But we shall presently have to allude to the land-locked salmon of Lake Wenem which demonstrates how an anadromous form may be similarly imprisoned in fresh water and still flourish. f Even British waters possess, besides members of the salmon family, anadromous forms, or such as ascend our rivers for the purpose of breeding, as shad, Glupea alosa and G. finta, also flounders, Pleuronectes flesus, while many other marine fish, as bass, gray mullet, turbot, soles, plaice, and smelts have been naturalized in fresh water where some have continued their kind. When we find that some members of a genus inhabit the sea and obhers are restricted to the fresh waters, as among the Coregoni, we are probably not far wrong should we conclude that their ancestry was marine. The houting, Goregonus oxyrhynahus, is found along some of the European coasts, and it ascends into fresh water, while Mr. Ogilby has observed the poUan, C. pollan, in Ireland descending to the sea. Respecting the salmon, trout, and char, the most diverse opinions have been and are still held as to whether their ancestry was marine or fresh water. J * Inherited instinct appears to induce those Arctic forms to seek a passage to the north : while, due to the alterations in the physical character of the water in the Baltic, which is continuously decreasing in salinity, they are a smaller and more miserable race than are their relatives which stiU reside and thrive in the Arctic Ocean. t In tropical countries, as India, it is not uncommon to find marine fish detained in pieces of fresh water, to which they obtained access under varying circumstances. Some forms of fishes enter inundated grounds daring high spring tides, or are carried over banks, and often find it impossible to return to the sea ; here they live until the succeeding rains cause floods and allow them to escape. The probabilities are that species of gar-pikes as Belone cancila, some herrings as Engraulis telara, the pretty globe fishes, Tetrodon cutcutia, and numerous other forms now entirely confined to fresh water in India, must have descended from a marine ancestry, for representatives of the same genera are numerous in the contiguous seas. + Pennant {British Zoology, iii, 1776, p. 288) observed that " the salmon is a fish that lives both in the salt and fresh waters, quitting the sea at certain seasons for the sake of depositing its spawn in security." Fleming (1828, p. 179) considered the salmon as a "migratory fish from the sea." Parnell (1838, p. 279) remarked " there is no doubt that the true abode of the salmon is in the sea, for as soon as it has entered the rivers it begins to deteriorate in condition, 6 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. The fact must not be lost sight of that, if salmon ever depended for their entire subsistence in the fresh water they ascend, the amount of food they would require would be so great in a rirer as to constitute a nuisance, and cause pollution were it left unconsumed. The number of csecal appendages present in each form of Salmonoid has been considered a criterion by which the various species may be differentiated ; but, on a more careful investigation, they have proved to be inconstant in their numbers. Still, the broad fact that all the species possess many of these appendages is important ; for, if we examine the true fresh- water fishes, as the carps, we find them, destitute of these appendages, while those fresh-water forms which possess them in any number, as perch and rufie in the Percidse and burbot in the Gadidse, appear invariably to have marine relatives ; consequently, their presence in the salmon family tends towards a supposition as to their also having a marine ancestry. It may reasonably be asked on what grounds it can be held that a species of fish as the brook trout, S. fario, in which vomerine teeth are normally present throughout its life,* could be a retrograde descendant from a salmon S. salar, in which these teeth are shed as the adult stage is obtained ? If we look at the very young salmon, as when in its par stage, we find the same distribution'of colours as are present in many adult trout or the immature livery of the salmon continued throughout the life of the more minute 8. fario. While in America the land- locked salmon, 8- salar, which occurs in some lakes, and only attains a few pounds in weight, would seem to be somewhat arrested in its development, and par bands are visible even in adults on the scales being rubbed oS. In the larger lake Wenern variety of the land-locked salmon, although the par bands do not continue through life, the fish is extensively spotted. It must be admitted that these finger marks are usually lost in adult trout, but when they pass their existence in small streams these immature marks may be continued through life, in fact the trout has not arrived at the silvery stage of the smolt. And what we find in colour we similarly perceive in dentition : the double row of vomerine teeth, so indicative of the fresh- water trout, are invariably seen in the immature par, or to put it in another way, a sign of immaturity in the trout is a persistence of the infantile dentition of the salmon. Consequently, it is to be expected that if this permanence of vomerine teeth is symptomatic of a change from a marine to a fresh-water state of existence we should expect to find such occurring in anadromous sea trout, whether 8. trutta or 8. cambricus, did they commence residing in rivers and lakes. And this is exactly the difierence which we perceive does occur, the vomerine teeth in such forms becoming more persistent through life than if the fish had retained its anadromous propensities. Salmon on entering rivers, as a general rule, deteriorate in quality, similarly to what has been shown takes place in sea fishes, prevented migrating to the ocean, unless under peculiarly favourable conditions ; therefore it becomes a question of what is the effect on salmon debarred from going to the sea? Here doubtless the reply of all observers is to one effect — that they sensibly dwindle in size, and generally the breed dies out, for even the land-locked salmon is a dwarfed race— in fact, similar in its character to the dwarfed breed of herrings imprisoned in the brackish Baltic sea. the scales lose their brilliant silvery lustre, and the flesh becomes soft and pale. Dr. Giinther (Catal. vi, 1866, p. 3) placed the fish of the genua Salmo as "inhabitants of the fresh waters of the Arctic and temperate parts of the Northern hemisphere, many species descending to the sea after having deposited their spawn." In 1866 he stated of the char " none of which migrate to the sea as far as our present knowledge goes" (Catal. vi,J p. 145), while in the Zoological Record for 1864, of the char he remarked " the origin of which cannot be deduced from a marine species." Frank Bucklaud, on the contrary, observed, " I consider the salmon a sea fish proper ; nevertheless, this sea fish ascends the rivers and streams in order to deposit its eggs for unlike other sea fish, it does not breed in the sea " (Familiar Hist. Brit. Fish. p. 321). ' ' * Char do not possess teeth on the body of the vomer, and possibly those systematists are correct who place them in a distinct genus from the salmon and trout. But this work not being intended to refer to any extent to such disputed points, I have considered it unnecessary to enlarge on this question and followed those authors who have suppressed the separate genus Balvelini HYBRIDS, LOCAL RACES AND VARIETIES. 1 As to tlie varieties and hybrids of trout. If, as seems probable, we merely possess one very plastic species subject to an almost unlimited amounb of variation, that its largest race is found in the ocean, while in order to breed it ascends streams, but usually (to which there are many exceptions) not so far as the salmon, unless it permanently takes up its abode in the fresh waters, we at once obtain a clue to the characters of the various so-called species, and relegate these different trout to a single form, in which numerous local races are to be found.* This also accounts for the hybrid theory, or numerous hybrid trout stated to exist in our waters ; for they should be regarded as really changing local races, as to whether they are assuming a fresh-water existence from a saline one, or vice versd. Here it will be necessary to slightly digress for the purpose of discriminating between local races or varieties and species, because what one naturalist considers a variety another may look upon as a species. Two primary characters have been selected as demonstrating the true position of a specimen, either the morphological or that relatiug to its structure and development ; or secondly, the physiological as relating to its functions. Even within the limits of a single species no two are found to be exactly similar, but a tendency to diverge from the original type appears to exist, which power of divergence is in such a direction as will be most likely to preserve and increase useful variations. For it seems to have been conclusively shown that there exists a law in animal life of an hereditary tendency to follow the specific type, while there is likewise a law of variability by adaptation which is destined to modify every organism so as to fit it for new conditions of existence. Owing to a knowledge of this latter tendency, by means of judicious selection and breeding from individuals that are possessed of some desirable variation, such may become permanent through future generations rf while natural selection (perhaps assisted by some as yet unknown factor) would similarly tend to favour the continuation among wild races, of forms which possess variations favourable to the life of the fish and thus produce and continue * The descendants of the common brook trout sent to Tasmania have shown in most localities very great disposition to vary. Mr. Arthur informed us that " In the Shag river the largest trout are near the tideway, and smaU trout numerous above. In the Leith the large trout are only found during spawning time." Also, " That as large trout are not now seen in the Leith except during winter, they must live in the brackish water at its mouth, or in the bay itself, for nine months out of the twelve. And this is further borne out by the fact of many large fish being netted by the fishermen in the bay with the characters, more or less, of the brown trout." In short, the brook trout are here migrating seawards, and becoming anadromous. A trout, Salmo fano, of 25 lb. weight, 322 in. long, and 2 ft. in girth, from Wairnakirri, New Zealand, as silvery as a salmon and marked with X-spots, was taken by Mr. Parr to the British Museum, where it is preserved in spirit. In the same river the trout caught previous to 1878 were marked with red spots, but they are never seen there now {The Field, Dec. 20th, 1880). Thus we are able to trace in the Antipodes not merely changing colours, but varying habits in the descendants of the non-migratory brook trout, which in a few generations has assumed more or less of the sea dress and anadromous habits of the European sea trout. Respecting the char, S. alpinus, we are told by Dr. 0. Beuter, in his Fishes of Finlaiid, that it is met with on the coast of the Arctic Sea and in the rivers, which they ascend to spawn ; but in Sweden it is known exclusively as a fresh-water fish, while it is quite clear that the American trout, Salmo fontinalis, belongs to this division of the genus Salmo. Professor Jordan observed the common Rooky Mountain trout, S. pwpuratus, is so known when taken in rivers and brooks, and as salmon trout when taken in the sea or river's mouth ; for sea-run specimens are more silvery, the only difference being temporary, and dependent on the water and possibly on the food. (Bull. U.S. Fish. Com. 1885, p. 310.) The British char has been said to have descended to the sea in Wales after it had been driven out of Llanberris Lake by poisoned water, and Mr. Jackson observed upon two which had escaped from a fresh-water tank in the Southport Aquarium and were captured many weeks afterwards by some boys fishing in the contiguous salt water, there does not seem any more reason why char should not be of marine origin than trout or salmon, while he would be a bold reasoner who could maintain that char, trout, and salmon are descendants from more than one ancestry ; that, in short, the salmon was a marine and the trout and char strictly fresh-water forms. f The experienced fish-oulturist is aware how varied are the changes observable in some piscine forms, as for instance in the gold carp, Garassius auratus, wherein may be found differences in form, proportions, colours, and in many ways, but all sprung from a single original stock and capable of being reproduced by artificial culture. Similarly the various races of common carp, Cyprinus carpio, as the leather carp, the mirror carp, &o , are merely local races of one species, and possibly some of our Salmonidaa have similarly shown local peculiarities which mistaken zoologists have believed to constitute species. 8 SALMONID^ OP BEITAIN. certain local varieties or races. If, however, the variations are not of a persistent character, nor exceed the differences between the limits laid down for a species, tHese cannot be considered as indicating a distinct species : for to render such valid, we must have a permanence of variation from the original form. Thus among the sticklebacks w-e find in the ten-spined form, some possessing ventral fins others destitute of them; but this difference not being permanent merely resolves itself into a local race or inconstant variety. The number of vertebra and the caecal appendages have been considered as characters which may materially assist m fixing the locaHty of a species among the Salmonidm, and it is proposed inve.stigating m detail some of the various structural and functional differences that have been brought forward for the purpose of establishing species among the true salmon, Salmones. It has occurred that owing to too great importance having been given to inconstant variations the number of species among this family has been unduly augmented, and varieties have been accorded specific rank : while every little variety of form, colour, or structure has also been reckoned as possibly demonstrating hybridity lnnJJ'%^'^?.°'f*^-''' °* l^^^^''* P*"*' °^ *^^ ^°^J ^^^y ^^^ age, season, or locality,* and^this may be augmented in some anadxomous forms which have been subjected to unnatural retention in fresh water, insufficiency of food or ti?fpT«f°°'^"^iT^?'- , The head of the male is generally longer than that of SIAIiE OB KETTLE NET. SYNOPSIS OF BRITISH GENERA. Synopsis of British Genera. 1. Salmo. — ^Maxillary long : dentition strong and complete. , Scales small. Anal rays in moderate numbers (14 or less). Pyloric appendages numerous. 2. Thymallus. — Maxillary sHort : small teeth, in the jaws, vomer, and on the palatine bones. Anterior dorsal fin many rayed. Scales of moderate size. Pyloric appendages numerous. .3. Goregonus. — Maxillary short : teeth if present minute. Anterior dorsal fin with few rays. Scales of moderate size. Pyloric appendages numerous. 4. Osmerus. — Maxillary long : dentition complete, with fang-like teeth on the vomer and tongue. Scales of medium size. Pyloric appendages few. 6. Argentina. — Maxillary short : teeth absent from jaws. Anterior dorsal fin with few" rays. Scales rather large. Pyloric appendages few or in moderate numbers. Of the foregoing my remarks will be restricted to species belonging to the two first genera, or those of Salmo and Thymallus, forms in which their eggs are much heavier than the water, and are mostly deposited beneath sand or gravel. The blood discs of the fishes of this family are of very large size, those of the salmon being nearly equal to such as are found in the cartilaginous sturgeon. Gulliver (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 834) recorded the average diameter of the red corpuscles of the blood in the following species — L. D. signifying the "long diameter" and s. d. "short diameter " :—/SaZmo salar, L. d. xsVtj s. d. -j-jVo- ^^ fario, L. D. x-^^r, s. B. j/oo- ^- f^^ox, L. D. -j-fV 4. S. D. -j gVo- ^- fontinalis, l. d. 3-Jj^, s. D. a-aVe- Thymallus vulgaris, L. D. ^Jj-j, S. D. -^-jVo. These corpuscles appear to be at least a third larger than the corresponding corpuscles of most other osseous fish. Genus I. — Salmo, Artedi. Fa/rio and Salar, Cuvier : TruUa and Salvelini, Nilsson. BrancMostegals from nine to thirteen : pseudobranchice present. Eyes lateral. Oleft of mouth deep, the posterior extremity of the upper jaw reaching to beneath the hind edge of the eye or even heyond. Teeth conical, present on the jaws, vomer, palatine hones and tongue, absent from the pterygoids. Anterior dorsal fin with a moderate number of fays (10-15) ; anal with rather few (10-13). Scales small and cycloid. Lateral-line straight. GcBcal appendages numerous. A pancreas present. Geographical distribution. — These physostomatous fishes, found in the fresh and salt waters of Europe, Asia, and America, are most abundant in the Arctic or colder regions, in contradistinction to the distribution of the carps and siluroids, which augment in numbers the nearer we approach the tropics. Temperature would appear to limit the distribution of these fishes to the colder and temperate regions, or we should find them extended to the Mediterranean, where Davy remarked he had only known a stray salmon captured off the coast of Malta.* The indigenous species belonging to this genus have been divided into (1) Salmones, or true salmons, wherein the body and the head of the vomer are toothed at some period of their lives, and (2) the Salvelini or chars, wherein the vomerine teeth are restricted to the head of that bone. * Davy (Physiological Researches, 1863, page 82) gave the result of some investigations that he had made on the temperature of salmon captured with an artificial fly. Sept. 1862 — Temper, of river, 56° : of male salmon, under liver, opened immediately, 59°: in the heart stiU pulsating, 58°. Sept. 1862 — Temper, of river, 58° : of salmon, under liver, opened immediately, 60° „ „ 58°: of grilse „ „ 59-5. In all these three instances the thermometer was introduced into the wound made by the gafE in the thick muscles of the back from which blood was exuding. 10 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. A. Sahnones or true salmon. 1. Salmo solar. (See Fig. 1.) 2. „ trutta, with its sea and fresh- water varieties or local races. (See Fig. 2.) B. Salvelini or chars. 3. Salmo alpinus, British char. (See Fig. 3.) 4. „ fontinalis, American char (introdiaced). Fig. 1. — FRONT VIEW OP TEETH ON FlO. 2.— FRONT VIEW OE TEETH ON FiG. 3. — SIDE VIEW OF TEETH VOMER OF SAIMON GRILSE. VOMER OF BROOK TROUT. ON VOMER OF BRITISH CHAR. With such plastic forms as trout whether fresh-water or marine, and such diversified appearances as some of these fish assume at different ages, it is not surprising what diverse views have been and are still held as to the number of species existing in our waters.* * Willoughby, Hi'storia PisciMm, 1686, enumerated (1) a salmon; (2) Salmulus; (3) the gray; (4) " the scurf and bull trout," Trutta salmondta ; {5) Trutta fluviatilis. Bay, Synopis Methodica Fiscium, 1713, gave (1) Salmo, " a salmon ;" (2) Salmulus, " the samlet;" (S) S. griseus seu cinereus, " the gray ;" (4) Trutta salmonata, " the salmon trout," or "bulltrout," or "scurf," (5) Trutta fluviatilis, "a trout." Peimant, British Zoology 1776, described (1) the salmon; (2) the gray trout, Salmo eriox, which he beUeved to be the sewin ; (3) the sea trout, S. trutta ; (4) the trout, S. fario ; (5) the white salmon ; and (6) the samlet. He alluded to that from Llynteisi, a lake of South Wales, termed Coeh y dail, and marked with black spots as large as sixpences ; to a crooked-tailed variety in the Einion, a river not far from Machynlleth, and also to a similar form being in the Snowdon lakes ; to the Gillaroo trout of Ireland, remarkable for the great thickness of its stomach, though it does not otherwise differ from the common trout ; and to the Buddaghs of Lough Neagh, in Ireland, some of which have been known to weigh 30 lb. Donovan, in his British Fishes (1802-1808), referred to the (1) sewen or Salmo camliricus, of which he stated, among other indications, that the head was shorter than in the common salmon, and the tail more forked — ^this he considered to be an anadromous form peculiar to Wales ; (2) the common salmon, Salmx> salar ; (3) the trout, Salmo fario, which he observed to be subject to many variations : and, lastly, to some in Scotch lakes, spotted very differently from the common sorts, which he suspected to be a distinct species, but of which he makes no further mention. He likewise observed how trout vary in size, and referred to the Fordwich form, in Kent, which attains to nearly that of the salmon. He also remarked upon the flesh of trout captured during the same season in two contiguous streams in Cardiganshire, the names of which he omits to give, one of which invariably produced the red and the other the white variety. Turton, 1807, admitted into his British fauna— {1) the salmon, Salmo salar; (2) the shewen, SaZmo eriox, to which he referred Donovan's sewen ; (3) the salmon trout, SaJroo trutta; (4) the common trout, Salmo fario; (5) the white salmon, Salmo phinoc ; and (6) the samleir, Salmo salmulus. Sir Humphry Davy {Report of Parliamentary Committee on the Salmon Fislieries of the United Kingdom, May 8th, 1824) gave the following species of the genus Sahno, as captured in the salmon fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland, evidently meaning the sea fisheries : (1) Salmo salar, or the common salmon, and (2) S. eriox, known under different names in different districts as salmon-peal, sewen, bull trout, but most correctly as sea trout. Fleming, in his History of British Animals, 1828, enumerated first those anadromous forms that have a forked tail, as (1) the common salmon, Salmo salar ; (2) the bull trout, Salmo hucho which is little inferior to the salmon in size, but more elongated, and has white and insipid flesh' but which be stated had no teeth on the vomer; (3) the phinook or white trout, Salmo albus' VARIOUS RECORDED FORMS. 11 Prior to commencing a detailed description of the vaiious species of British SalmonidsB, it will be necessary to take a brief but general survey of the fishes of which it is composed, especially as regards their external form, internal organiza- tion, and some of their natural functions. which seldom attains to a foot in length, and is common in the seas and rivers of Scotland and the North of England. Secondly, anadromous forms with even tails, as (4) the sea trout, Salmo tiv,tta, of which he considered the samlet or par to be the young of this or of the salmon, the migrations of the two almost coinciding ; (5) the gray trout, Salmo eriox, including S. cambrieus, and found in the sea and in rivers. Lastly, forms stationary in rivers, as (6) the common trout, Salmo fario, remarking of the Gillaroo variety that when it fed on shell-fish the coats of its stomach acquired a thickness similar to the gizzards of birds. Agassiz, in the Eeports of the British Association for 1834, only admitted (1) Salmo salar; (2)8.trutta; (3) S. fario. Jenyns, in his Manual of British Vertebrate Animals, 1835, included (1) the common salmon ; (2) the bull trout or gray salmon, S. eriox; (3) the sea trout, S. trutta, inhabiting the sea and rivers, identical with the salmon trout of the London markets and the white trout of Pennant and Fleming ; (4) the common trout, S. fario, with its variety the Gillaroo ; (5) the great lake trout, S. ferox, which he believed to be identical with S. lacustns, of Berkenhout, though Agassiz believed not of continental authors. Yarrell, in his History of British Fishes, 1836, gave (1) the salmon, Salmo salar ; (2) the bull trout or gray trout, 8. eriox and S. cambrieus ; (8) the salmon trout, S. trutta ; (4) the par or samlet, S. salmulus ; (5) the common trout, S. fario, and (6) the great lake trout, S. ferox; and in a later edition (7) the Looh Leven trout, S. levenensis. Parnell, in his prize essay on the Fishes of the Firth of Forth, 1838, entered very fully into his views respecting the Salmonidcs. He admitted (1) the salmon ; (2) the bull trout, S. eriox, of which he enumerated and figured the following varieties which he had obtained in the Firth of Forth : — a salmon-spotted bull trout, a few spotted bull trout, a thickly spotted bull trout, a large-headed bull trout, a curved spotted bull trout, a crescent-tailed bull trout, a Norway bull trout, and a salmon bull trout identical with S. trutta of Jenyns and Yarrell ; (3) salmon trout, 8. trutta, which is likewise the same as S. albus of Fleming ; (4) the par ; (5) the common trout ; (6) the Loch Leven trout. Jardine, in his British Salmonidcs, 1839, figured (1) the salmon ; (2) the phinock or gray trout ; (3) the great lake trout ; (4) the conamon trout and five principal varieties ; (5) the Solway migratory trout or herling ; (6) the salmon or sea trout ; (7) the par, of which he had not any hesitation in considering not only distinct, but one of the best and most constantly marked species which we have. White, in the List of the specimens of British animals in the National Museum, enumerated in 1851 (1) the common salmon ; (2) the sea trout ; (3) the bull or gray trout; (4) the common trout ; (5) the great lake trout. Knox in 1835 added Salmo estuarius. Thompson, in his Natural History of Ireland, 1856, gave (1) the salmon, including the par ; (2) the gray or bull trout, S. eriox ; (3) the salmon trout ; (4) the common trout, including the Gillaroo, which variety he recorded having met with in most fresh-water races ; (5) the great lake trout. Dr. Giinther, in a Catalogue of fishes in the British Museum, 1866, divided the genus Salmo as follows : — Balmones (=Tntt8(K, Nilsson, also i^ario and Salar, Ouv. and Val.) having teeth on the head of the vomer and also along its body, the posterior of which latter become lost with age : and Salvelini or chars with the vomerine teeth at all ages are restricted to the head of that bone. The former were subdivided in accordance with their habits into "anadromous" forms or such as migrate from the sea into fresh water to breed, and the non-migratory fresh-water forms. He described the following as species : — Anadromous forms : (1) Salmo salar. Vertebra, 59-60, Csecal appendages, 51 to 77; (2) S. argenteus, Csec. pyl. 61-67 ; (3) S. trutta. Vert. 59-60, Cffio.pyl. 43-61 ; (4) S. orcadensis. Vert. 56-57, Cebc. pyl. 50 ; (5) S. brachypoma, Vert. 59, Csec. pyl. 45-47 ; (6) S. cambrieus. Vert. 59, Csbc. pyl. 33-52. While of the non-migratory fresh water forms, he admitted — (7) S. levenensis, Vert. 57-59, Cbbo. pyl. 49-90 ; (8) S. fario, northern variety gaimmrdi. Vert. 69-60, CffiC. pyl. 33-46, southern variety ausonii. Vert. 57-58, Csec. pyl. 38-47 ; (9) S. ferox. Vert. 56-57, Csec. pyl. 43-49 ; (10) S. stomachicjis. Vert. 59-60, Ctec. pyl. 44 ; (11) S. gallivensis. Vert. 59, Case. pyl. 44 ; (12) S. nigripinnis. Vert. 57-59, Cebc. pyl. 36-42. Couch, Fishes of the British Isles, 1864, also augmented the nominal species of salmonidse, describing the following : — (1) Salmo salar ; (2) S. trutta, which he termed Peal, and observed that under several names it exists in considerable abundance through the whole extent of the British Island ; (3) S. cambrieus or sewin ; (4) Sea trout from the Fowey in Cornwall, evidently identical with the so-called hybrids of the sewin ; (5) S. trutta no. 2, termed salmon trout, which he asserted to be more a fish of the north than the generality of this genus, and seemed to be identical with S. eriox, Yarrell, or a compound of S. albus and.S. cambrieus. Day, British and Irish Fishes, 1880-84, believing many of the reputed British species to be simply local races, or unstable varieties, decreased the number to — (1) the Salmon, Salvw salar ; (2) sea trout, S. trutta and its several varieties, as the brook trout, Lochleven trout, &o. ; (3) the char, S. alpinus; and (4) the American char, S. fontinalis, which had been acclimatized by fish- culturists. 12 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN, The head, whioh is comparatively large, is divided from the body by the gill- openings, while the eye (fig. 4 e) snb-divides it into two parts, that in front of this organ being termed the ante-orbital and that behind it the post-orbital region ; in Fig.. 4, Outline of a young Loohleven trout, a. anal fin : ad. adipose dorsal fin : hr. branoMos- tegous rays : c. caudal fin : d. rayed dorsal fin : e. eye : i.o. interopercle ; 1.1. lateral-line : m. maxilla : ma. mandible : n. nostrils : o. opercle : p. pectoral fin : fm. premaxilla : po. preopercle : so. Bub- opercle : s.r. suborbital ring : v. ventral fin : vt. vent : x. peduncle or free portion of the tail. the former is the snout wherein are placed the nostrils {ri) and the mouth. The region between the orbits is known as the inter-orbital space, while that below the orbit is the infra- or snb-orbital, with its ring of bones (^s.r). The mouth is somewhat oblique, and rather protractile. The gill-covers or opercles consist of four pieces, the posterior and upper of which is the opercle or operculum (o) . In front of it is the preopercle (^o). While of the two lower pieces, the posterior is known as the sub-opercle (so), and the anterior, situated below the preopercle, as the inter-opercle (i.o). The body or trunk, which commences just behind the head, passes by almost imperceptible degrees into the caudal or tail portion, the vent (vt) separating the two regions. While the finless part between the adipose or dead fin of the back (ad) and the tail fin (c) is termed the peduncle or free portion of the tail (re) . The skin is scaled, and the row of pierced scales that passes along the side is known as the lateral line (l.T), the number on which may be useful in assisting in discriminating a species. If the composition of the fins in fishes of this family is examined, we perceive them to consist of soft rays that are either simple and undivided, or com- posed of numerous pieces articulated Fig. 5. Caudal ray of trout. to one another by transverse joints, and which rays may have their outer ex- tremities branched. A ray is essentially ends more or formed of two lateral halves fastened together, with the less separated, as seen in fig. 6, which represents the caudal ray of a trout where the divided basal extremity embraces both sides of an hypural bone. Fin rays when broken may reunite, if lost they may likewise occasionally be reproduced, but often in an incomplete manner.* The fins iare divisible into such as are single and unpaired, hence termed "azygous," as those along the median line of the back or dorsal (fig. 4, d and ad). The tail or caudal fin (c), placed vertically at the posterior extremity of a fish where it may be seen of two very distinct types ; in the generality of the finny tribes when the two lobes are equal it is termed " homocercal," as in the perch or carp ; whereas in the sharks and some other allied classes the vertebral column is * According to M. M. Philipeau's investigations and experiments made on gudgeons, GoUo fluviatilis, he found that the fins were reproduced only when the basal portion at least is left intact. Having removed the left ventral fin on a level with the abdominal surface, it became completely restored in eight months. In another example he repeated the operation, also taking away the small bones which supported it, but at the end of eight months there was no trace of the fin's regeneration. (Cmmittee of the House of Gonimons, in 1824, Mr. Johnstone stated the difference between a grilse and a salmouf to be as follows : — " The grilse is a much less fish in general, it is much smaller at the tail in proportion, and it has a much more swallow tail, much more forked ; it is smaller at the head, sharper at the point of the nose, and generally the grilse is more bright in the scale than the salmon." Doubtless there is a difference in the appearance of a small salmon and a grilse of the same size, but such is probably due to the former from some cause not having got into condition and so lost a season. That grilse frequently r§,-asoend rivers at irregular periods has been constantly observed, J while they have also been entirely absent for a whole season, as in 1867, as has been already remarked (seepage 72). At p. 71 I have recorded the captures made by anglers in the Shin, which tend to show that grilse commence running up the river at the end of May or commence- ment of June, while the greatest number ascend in July, after which there is a decrease. The average weight of each fish captured in the various months in 1886 were as follows : — February, salmon, 9 lb. : March, 11 lb. . April, 13 lb. . May, 12i lb. : June, 141b. : July, I25 lb. : August, 10 lb. : while September was not fished. Of grilse the average weights of fish were in May, 3 lb. : June,',4J lb. : July, Sg lb. : August, 6 lb. : September not fished. These figures agree to a con- in 1859, deposited 18,000 salmon ova at DoohuUa, they hatched in February, 1860, only a few were ready for sea when about thirteen mouths old, the great majority migrating at twenty-seven months old, they stayed from thirteen to fifteen months at sea, when they returned as grilse at two years and four months old {Fish Culture, by Francis Francis, 1865, Appendix, page 311). * In 1860, Mr. Mackenzie, when publishing his father's treatise on the Salmon Fisliery of Scotland, did not accept the view therein held that the grilse was a young salmon, but gave his reasons in an appendix under the title " do grilse grow to be salmon ? " And he asserted that they did not, that " its instincts in some respects are different, though its habits are precisely the same." His arguments being that the salmon's instinct impel them to ascend rivers in winter and spring, but the grilse do not leave the sea for the fresh waters until the summer, one in short being a spring, and the other a summer fish. That salmon and grilse do not spawn promiscuously ; and when the grilse appear in May or June, their roe is in precisely the same stage of growth as in the salmon when they appear in rivers in January, but as they spawn about the same time, it shows that the roe of the grilse requires only half the time which that of the salmon requires to bring it to maturity. Also, that grUse in May weigh from 3 lb. to to 5 lb. ; in July, from 10 lb. to 12 lb. ; and instead of finding them in August and September 16 lb. or 20 lb., which would be natural if they continued to grow in order to become salmon, they apparently begin to grow backwards, as in October they are as smaU as in May. The river Shin produces salmon, but very- few grilse ; the Oykell few salmon, but shoals of grilse. The tail-fin of a grilse tapers off to a finer edge than in the salmon. A Committee of the Commissioners of the river Tweed, ignoring some of the experiments previously conducted in that river, reported in 1863, as f oUows : — "Our opinion from the experience of the last twenty years, is, that grilse never become salmon at any stage whatsoever." •j- Fraser (I. c, p. 37) observed, "A large grilse is a breeder the first season. A small salmon may be of the same age with the large grilse, but it has never spawned, owing to its not getting in its season to the proper feeding-ground, and before the young fish it feeds upon have grown strong and left the ground. These (salmon) fry not only lost the season, but lost their ordered food, and are oiJy in condition to return to rivers, some early and some from first to last of every season." Professor Brown-Goode (Natural History of Aquatic Animals, p. 474) observed of the grilse and adolescent salmon, that the two may be easily distinguished, even though both should be of the same size as not infrequently happens. " The male grilse is sexually mature, but not so the female in America ; in Europe the same is claimed for the male par and the female grilse " (smolt). { Mr. J. Mnier, Land and Water, May 10th, 1879, reported on having caught in 1879, four grilse weighing 20i lb., all in the scale together, the largest 5J lb., the smallest 4 lb. 'These Galway gnlse were ascending at the latter end of April, and such an early run, it was supposed, had not happened for twenty-five years, the main run generally occurring in May and June. In 1881, the first grilse in the Forth was recorded on June 28th, but in 1882 they were a week later. SALMON— RAPIDITY OF THEIR GROWTH. 95 siderable extent with those given hj Ruasel for the fisheries of the Tay (see p. 71), and tend to show that in the Shin the grilse which first ascend in May are the smallest, but that they gradually increase in weight until September, when the fishing ceases.* I have endeavoured to trace in the preceding pages how the grilse are sprung from salmon, that from their eggs salmon par are produced indistinguishable from those raised when both parents had been large salmon. These grilse return to the sea as grilse-kelts and re-appear in our rivers as salmon. f As to the rapidity of growth ia salmon, various experiments have been insti- tuted iu different localities which would tend to the conclusion that generally it is rapid. But for the purposes of observation on this point there have been two classes of fish marked, kelts which were out of condition and grilse or salmon in good condition. It must be evident that in the first set of experiments consider- able allowance has to be made for the fishes getting again into condition. It seems from investigations made in various places (see p. 79) that undoubtedly some salmon do not breed every year, in fact if this were the invariable rule it would be impossible that any clean ones, unless possibly as small grilse, could be captured during the months of July and August. J * From the above notes in the Hotel record to whicli I was allowed access, I found that during the season of 1883, the salmon taken had an average of 12 lb. per fish: in 1884, nearly 13 lb. : in 1885, about 13i lb. : and in 1886, about 124 lb. While the grilse in 1883 averaged nearly 6 J lb. : in 1884, 6 lb. : in 1885, 5J lb. : and in 1886, 5 lb. t Mr. Mackenzie, Second Parliamentary Report, p. 21, stated that in March, 1823, he marked a grilse kelt of 3 J lb. weight with a brass wire, and caught it again in March, 1824, then a salmon of 7 lb. weight. A fish which weighed 3^ lb. as a kelt ought to weigh 5 lb. or 6 lb. when in good condition again, so this instance is hardly one which leads to the inference of rapidly increasing in weight. Mr. Eraser, On the Salmon, &a., 1833, pp. 14-15, observed: "In February, 1829, I marked several grilse after spawning, by cutting off the fin above the tail. On the 1st of September following I caught one of them, which then weighed 13 lb. On the 10th of the same month I caught another weighing 14 lb. : both were very fine salmon and charged with spawn. None of these could weigh above 5 lb. or 6 lb. at the time I marked them ; they were taken very near the ground where they were marked. In February, 1830, I tied a wire round the tail of some grilse returning to the sea, and only one of them came to my hands in the following August. Macleod of Macleod, Mr. Eraser of Culduthell, and other gentlemen saw this salmon, and the mark produced on it by the wire. Mr. Mackenzie of Ardross tied wire round the tails of some breeders returning to the sea in March, 1824, and about the same time next year, in March, 1825, he caught one of the fish thus marked, doubled in size, and the wire nearly out of sight." Mr. Young stated that a grilse-kelt of 2 lb. weight was marked on March 31st, 1858, and recaptured on August 2nd of the same year as an 8 lb. salmon. Bamsbottom remarked in 1854 that " the Duke of Athol, when Lord Glenlyon, captured on the 31st of March, 1845, a kipper fish of 10 lb. weight, to which he attached a zinc ticket for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of its increase during its stay in the sea. In less than six weeks it was again caught and found to weigh 21^ lb." (In this case we are not informed how the zinc label continued legible after being kept in. salt water.) Mr. Scrope, in his work entitled Days of Salmon Pishing, 1854, gave the following experiments as having been made in the river Shin in Sutherlandshire : — Weight of grilse Date retaken kelts when marked. Feb. 18th.— 41b. July In 1859 the Duke of Athol had three salmon captured, while migrating seawards, weighing 10, 111, and 12i lb. respectively. These were marked by a copper wire being placed round their tails, and six months subsequently they were recaptured as they were returning to fresh water, and their weight was ascertained to have augmented to 17, 18, and 19 lb. respectively. J Eraser, On the Salmon, &o., 1833, p. 17, observed, respecting the salmon of the Ness, that " breeders of this season, after remaining all summer in the sea, partly return as breeders in the months of August and September to spawn in the following winter. The greater part, however, return to the Ness in November and December, barren and averaging 16 lb. each in weight." »J 41b. M 41b. If 41b. )) 41b. )) 41b. March 4th.— 4 lb. »» 41b. 121b. tl 41b. ct year. Weight 23rd . 91b. 25th 111b. 25th . 91b. 25th . 101b. 27th . 131b. 28th . 101b. 1st . 121b. 1st . 14 ib. 10th . 181b. 27th . 121b. 96 SALMONID^ OP BRITAIN". Having now briefly detailed the salmon's history from the egg to the adult fish, it becomes necessary to revert to those forms which have completed their spawning. Commonly known as helts or slats, or if males, as Jcippers* they drop down stream, from pool to pool, in a very thin and exhausted condition, the males much more so than the females. However, they generally remain in the river in a debilitated state, feeding upon whatever fish comes in their way, not rejecting the young of their own species. At this period they are readily captured, and, owing to their weak condition, very prone to attacks of disease, often dying in vast numbers, while a heavy flood carries them oS towards the sea, but as a rule they continue some time in the brackish water of the tideway before seeking the ocean. Although, doubtless, a few of these kelts mend in the rivers, recovering their silvery lustre prior to reaching the sea, and others return at a future period in a healthy state from the salt water, it seems questionable whether too many are not now permitted to mend, possibly to a great extent, upon the salmon fry, thus reducing the amount of stock in the river. In olden times fishermen took all spawned fish as their own perquisites, consequently but few descended to the sea in some rivers : also poachers, assisted by otters and other vermin, kept the number of kelts in check. If for the benefit of the fishing in a river, it were deemed advisable to permit the capture of salmon kelts, such would have to give rise to many other considerations. Were it legal to sell them, how would such a permission end? for soon grilse kelts would be accused of occasioning damage, and assuredly their capture would before long be legalized. These concessions granted it might next be advanced that many fresh-run' clean salmon were in the river and which if not captured would be lost as food.f Still we have to consider facts as they exist, and without doing more than just touching on this subject it seems as if it might be divided as follows : — That the salmon sub- sequent to the spawning season becomes sickly, and is as well destroyed as kept ; and while mending it consumes more young salmon, trout, and other fish than it is worth ; that possibly kelts might be eaten. After spawning, salmon doubtless become exhausted and more easily sus- ceptible to disease and capture, and it has been proposed to kill all the male kelts from the commencement of February ; and all of either sex from the commence- ment of March. Now, although there can scarcely be a doubt that some at least of the kelts return to riversj after recovering their strength in the sea, still many He continued that these early, clean, and barren salmon have inside them several grains of the ova of last season still undischarged. * The hook, or kype, in the lower jaw of the spawning male is doubtless the origin of this term, while it has been surmised that they were first known as " kipper " salmon. Mr. Dunbar Brander remarked {Field, October 20th, 1886), that "A kip-nosed man, in Scotch, means a man with a turned-up pug nose. As these kip-nosed or kipper fish are soft and flabby, they are generally dried and smoked, and the process they undergo has been named from the fish that are utilized in this way. It is almost impossible to cure and dry a fresh-run fish during March, April, May, and June. In July and August they are so fuU of oil, curd, and fat, that they spoil in the process ; but by the month of October the fish get kip-nosed, and they can be dried and cured. The curd and oil is very much absorbed. Eef erenoe to a Scotch dictionary will show that anything turned up at the corners is said to be ' kippered.' " t Such arguments as the following would soon be again brought forward, that " another cause of disease may be the spring-run fish remaining fully a year in the river, which must be injurious to them. Could all these early-run fish be captured, and the late autumn fish strictly preserved, the markets would benefit and the breeding stock would not be diminished." Or that " I cannot help thinking that, with regard to kelts, our laws might be revised with considerable benefit alike to anglers and rivers. Have any of my readers ever tasted these fish when well made up 1 So well mended are they at times that some experience is positively necessary to detect them when caught from new fish. I have tasted them ; and, although I do not pretend to say they are equal in delicacy of flavour, yet, as respects an article of food, they are perfectly wholesome and good eating." J It has been shown that salmon after having spawned die, as has been asserted by Stella, Pallas, and Sir John Eiehardson when writing respecting the salmonoids of Kamtschatka and North-Western America. Although this, no doubt, is found to be true in some parts of the world, it is not invariably so here. If all kelts died, how could grilse or even male par which have been known to breed ever reach salmonhood ? Still many old kelts succumb from exhaustion and SALMON— KELTS AND THEIR PRESERVATION. 97 observers are of opinion that tiey never come back, consequently as mending kelts they have been consuming food, but in return for which they will not subse- quently benefit the river.* Certainly, were all the salmon kelts destroyed the probabilities are that the breed in the river might decrease in sizef (see p. 27), but that the destruction of a number will have this effect, is not so sure, thus during the winter season of 1881-82 the salmon disease seriously affected the Tay and its tributaries, killing vast numbers of kelts, and by some people a greatly diminished catch was prognosticated for the season of 1882-83. But the spring and summer fishing was fairly favourable,! while in August there was a large increase both in grilse and salmon : the effects of the mortality seemed to show itself in the decreased weight of the individual salmon and the paucity of exceptionally heavy fish, none attaining 401b. until the commencement of June. This would go towards favouring the contention that kelts when mended do return to the river, but that a great destruction of them does not necessarily involve a greatly diminished take of salmon the ensuing year. possibly ulceration of the snout {see -p. 57). Buist observed, "A few years ago a fine male of 20 lb. weight was used for spawning purposes at Stormontfields. A mark was put on him by means of a copper wire and two years afterwards he was got when nearly 30 lb. weight on the same ford, and at the same season : and after doing duty again was returned to the river hale and strong, but he was not traced afterwards." Also instances have been adduced of marked kelts having returned to the same river (see p. 95). A correspondent, "Blaokwater side," writing in Land and Water, May 28th, 1881, remarked " that in the Blaokwater we have a class of fish locally termed ' retrievers ' or ' recruits.' These fish have the remains of the markings generally of the male kelts and the hook on the under jaw still developed. They are usually in company with a good run of fresh fish, as if, having been down to the sea, they met a number of old friends rushing up, and turned back with them. Some of them have been so short a time in salt water that the remains of the maggots are found in their gills. The gray or ' harvest fish ' of this part of the country are also beyond a doubt the kelts which went down early and recovered them- selves suflSoiently to run up in the autumn and spawn during the following winter." * " I want to ask your correspondents," observed a writer in Land and Water (November 18th, 1881), writing of the Tweed, " who swear salmon kelts return, and so make the big autumn fish, how is it that for the last three winters they have died by thousands, and yet we have more fish of all sorts, and more big ones than we have had in the river for years, and there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, stiU ascending the fords every day ? It was calculated that in the winter of 1879-80, 50,000 kelts were buried or washed out to sea ; the same thing happened last winter when the disease was worse than ever, and equally as many died (in fact I stated at the time that it was worse last spring than was ever known), and thousands were washed out to sea, as we had two very big floods ; one the biggest since the year 1826, and in spite of all this we have more fish than ever." Another correspondent remarked of these kelts : " They lie helpless in the river in many instances, and though aUve, can be hooked out by a stick. No doubt when our grand- fathers lived on acorns, all these fish were taken out. They are diseased, and ought to be killed, as diseased birds and animals are or ought to be killed. It is all very well to talk of magnificent 30 lb. or 40 lb. fish if kelts are preserved, but far better have two fish of 15 lb. than one fish of 301b. When a salmon is over 201b. he begins to get coarse, and a 401b. fish is real 'old buU.' No man who has the pick of a hundred fish would select one over 18 lb. for his own eating." In another communication to Land and Water, August 23rd, 1883, it was observed, " Kelts were killed and sold previous to the Act of 1857, and no one was ever one bit the worse, and yet they are now supposed to be unwholesome. Surely they are ten times better than a fish covered with Saprolegnia ferax — in one case the fish are only lean, in the other simply rotten. A kelt is not unwholesome ; it is foul and unclean, and it is by law protected in the hope that it wiU return from the sea a clean fish. Now they are protected every way for no purpose whatever except to please a few who think they return, and the whole time they are in the river they are destroying smolts and spreading disease." t Arguments condemning the slaughter of kelts have been adduced, thus one well-known author protested against advocating the indiscriminate destruction of salmon-kelts, observing, "If we were to destroy all kelts in a river, where are the large fish to come from ? The natural con- sequence of such a proceeding would be that only grilse would be left, and these fish would be on their second run from the sea and would not average probably 8 lb., whereas it takes years to produce the noble 20 lb. and 30 lb. which have since their first appearance as grilse repro- duced their species yearly." X H.M. Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, Professor Huxley, in July, 1883, reported, " Another very singular fact which has been brought to light by observation, though it certainly sounds paradoxical, is, that even a violent epidemic of disease (Saprolegnia ferax) continued for several years does not diminish the productiveness of a river." Probably the reason is to be found in so many kelts falling victims, and as a consequence the smolts escape, thus it wiU possibly augment the gross weight of the captures, although it may be more or less fatal to the presence of many very large fish 7 98 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. An experiment of permitting kelts to be destroyed in one river for a single year, and ascertaining the effect on the stock of salmon and grilse the succeeding season, appears well worthy of a fair trial, provided such could be done without entailing greater difficulties as regards the disposal of the captured fish, &c. as I have already pointed out. It has likewise been proposed that people should be permitted to kill and eat these kelts, which otherwise probably become lost as food. But prior to such a proceeding being sanctioned, it might not be amiss to inquire whether they would be wholesome. Some observations tend to prove that occasionally they are not so ;* while it must be evident to anyone who studies our fish markets that a large number of kippered salmon are of this description and have not been accused of entailing unpleasant results. It has been remarked that kelts may mend in fresh water, and certainly they must do so in the land-locked rivers. Brown, Stormontjield Experiments, pp. Ill, 112, recorded that a male kipper, no. 78, was caught April 1st, 1861, by Mr. Evans above Logierait : it weighed 13^ lb. ; May 4th, 1861, it was taken again by Mr. Brown on the Stanley water, and weighed 16 lb., having evidently improved in condition in the fresh water. In Parliamentary language the terms " unclean" and "unseasonable," as well as " foul " fish are mentioned and their destruction prohibited, but much discussion has taken place concerning the meaning of these phrases. Probably the first decision respecting what is a "clean" or "unclean" salmon was given in December, 1885, by Mr. Fowler, who considered that a " baggit," or gravid but tinspawned fish, comes under the term, " unclean." We are told, after the penalties for taking uncleanf or unseasonable salmon * Br. Gerald Boate, writing from Ireland in 1645, asserted that the leprosy was caused " through the foul gluttony of the inhabitants in the unwholesome devouring of foul salmon when they are out of season, which is after they have east their spawn, upon which they do not only grow very weak and flabby, but so unwholesome as it would loathe any man to see them." Biickland related how a water-bailiff, who was a strong, healthy man, ate a portion of one, and was made so ill that he was confined to his bed for two days. t In the Report of the Salmon Commissioners appointed in 1860 to inquire into the Salmon Fisheries of England and Wales, and consequent upon which report a Salmon Act was passed, it was observed (p. xvii), " With reference to the capture of unseasonable fish, whether in aspent or spawning state, when they are unsuitable if not unwholesome for food," i.e., clearly showing the views they held on the subject. Paterson (The Fishery Laws of the United Kingdom, 1863, p. 274), referring to unclean fish in Ireland, gave the following : " If any person at any time wilfully take, kill, destroy, expose for sale, or have in his possession any red, black, foul, unclean or unseasonable sahnon or trout," &c. (13 and 14 Vic). Here it is evident that unspawned fish would come under the head of unclean fish. Eussel {The Salmon, 1863) remarked of a river having " got rid in any considerable degree of the foul fish, spawned and unspawned." In Chambers's Encyclopcedia (? 1865) we read, " As the time of spawning approaches salmon undergo consider- able changes of colour, besides the change of form already noticed in the snout of the male. The former brilliancy of the hues gives place to a general duskiness, approaching to blackness in the females, much tinged with red in the males, and the cheeks of the males become marked with orange stripes. Salmon in this state are 'foul fish,' being considered unfit for the table, and the killing of them is prohibited by British laws." The Irish Salmon Fisheries Act enacts that if any person shall take, kill, or have in his possession " any red, black, foul, unclean, or unseason- able salmon," such person shall forfeit, &o. Oke, Salmon Fishery Acts, described an unclean fish " as a fish that had not migrated to the sea after spawning." " A Looker-on," in The Field, December 26th, 1885, remarked, " According to my reading of the law the term (unclean) included gravid fish that are about to spawn as well as spent fish that have spawned." Mr. Willis-Bund (Salmon Problems, 1885) defined an unclean fish as one "unfit to be taken, wherever and whenever caught, even if during the open season ; thus a kelt would be an unclean salmon." Mr. 0. Pennell (Badminton Series, 1885, p. 114) observed of salmon that " shortly before spawning and whilst returning to the sea as kelts or spent fish salmon are unfit for food, and their capture is illegal." The Editor of The Field remarked respecting unclean salmon, in a footnote (December, 1885), that " we are inclined to think that it is an open question, and very much would depend on the view a magistrate took of it. A baggit can hardly be held to be a clean fish — we do not consider it so — though it is quite possible that an objection might be raised to its being held to be a foul one." E. 0. T. (Field, December 26th, 1885) observed that " the law enacts that all fish caught by rod in the Aberdeenshire Dee up to October Blst are clean, except kelts or spent fish." ..." Females full of spawn are killed in the Eiver Dee every October that are clearly unfit for food. The male fish also, though not spent, are red and mueh deteriorated by the long sojourn in fresh water. They also, in point of fact, are unclean." SALMON— LAND-LOCKED EAOES. 99 have been enumerated, that an exemption is made in favotir of any person who takes or is in possession of such fish for artificial propagation. Mr. Paterson, in his work on The Fishery Laws of the United Kingdom, 1863, pointed out, when commenting on this section, that the joint consent of the owners or occupiers of the fishery and of the Board of Conservators " always is necessary when a third party takes unclean fish. There is no such exemption as to fish that are clean. Accordingly we must conclude that the Act includes unspawned fish in the term ' unclean,' or else that the only legal means of carrying on ' artificial propagation' is by the capture of kelts." Among questions of practical moment among those relating to the breeding of salmon, as well as bearing on the races of so-called " land-locked salmon," is whether Salmo solar can be permanently retained in fresh water* without ever descending to the sea ? And if so whether, under such conditions, it would continue its race ? A great obstacle in coming to a conclusion on this point has been that it seemed occasionally to be doubtful whether in the recorded instances of such having been successfully accomplished the observer referred to Salmo salar or to a sea trout ? Some authors have held that could salmon migrate from rivers into large fresh-water lakes where a sufficiency of suitable food existed, they would be able to return to the streams where they had been reared as well- developed salmon. But doubtless the generally accepted opinion has been that salmon, if retained in fresh water and unable to migrate to the sea, do not increase in weight but die without continuing their race.^ This however I shall be able to show is not, under favourable circumstances, a necessary result, as has been proved by experiments at Howietoun,J where smolts or grilse have given ova without descending to the sea, and from which par have already been reared. * Dr. Gunther (Catal. vi, p. 108) observed, "We have no evidence whatever that a migratory species has ever been changed into a non-migratory one; and persons who bring forward instances of such changes having taken place in the course of a few years, must first prove that they have correctly determined the species of the specimens experimented upon." f In 1653 Izaak Walton published the first edition of his Compleat Angler, wherein the opinions of the most reliable authors of previous or contemporary times on salmon-breeding were condensed. He remarked that it "is said to breed or cast its spawn in most rivers in the month of August : some say they, dig a hole or grave in a safe place in the gravel and there place their eggs or spawn, after the milter has done his natural oflSce, and then hide it most cunningly and cover it over with gravel and stones. ' Kippers ' have bony gristle growing out of their lower jaws, and may live one year from the sea, but pine and die the second year. Little salmons called ' skeggers,' which abound in many rivers, are bred by such sick salmons that might not go to the sea, and though they abound they never thrive to any considerable bigness." WiUoughby (De Historia Piseium, 1686), quoting a communication to Gesuer, tells us that generally about the end of November salmon ascend for breeding purposes up rivers to their affluents, where the eggs are deposited and the young born; these latter are termed " samlets," while the old fish descend to the sea. Bay {Synopsis Methodica Piseium, 1713, p. 63) observed that salmon are born in the rivers, from which they descend to the sea. Pontoppidan (Natwral History of Norway, 1755, chap, vi, p. 131) remarked that WiUoughby " also confutes Gesner's opinion concerning the salmon's breeding in the sea : he thinks that it is done in fresh water, from whence they afterwards go to the sea ; but in this he is certainly mistaken. The salmon unquestionably breeds in the sea, though it is not entirely to be denied but that they may sometimes breed in rivers also, for they are found in the midst of Germany, and upper parts of the Ehine, about Basel ; but we are very well assured that the salmon chiefly ejects its roe at the mouth of rivers, where they empty themselves into the sea, or a little way beyond, in the salt water, in this manner : they bend themselves crooked, in order to eject the roe at an aperture under the belly, and in the meantime they stick their heads down in the sand, that they may have the more strength. The male comes presently after, to keep off other fish from devouring the roe, and he then bends his head towards the tail, and ejects his sperm upon the roe." J Passing over the various authors who have mostly reproduced the opinions of those who have preceded them, we come to Yarrell, British Fishes (Edition 2) ii, p. 17, who teUs us that about the end of 1830 water was first turned into a certain pond, three or four acres in extent, situated in Scotland, and in April, 1831, one or two dozens of small salmon fry, 3 in. or 4 in. long, were taken out of the river and turned in. In 1833 the first fishing was allowed, and several salmon were taken with the fly from 2 lb. to 3 lb. in weight ; all were perfectly well shaped and filled up, 7 * 100 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. At one time* the search for roe in salmon whicli had not descended to the sea was energetically carried on, but latterly appears to have ceased ; so it was oi the best salmon colour outside, the flesh well-flavoured and well-coloured, though a little paler than that of new-run fish. Mr. Upton, in the autumn of 1835 and the following spring, according to TarreU, transferred some " pinks," none of which exceeded SJ in. in length, from the Lune, to a lake termed Lillymere, and which has neither outlet from other waters by which fish can obtain access, or any obtain exit, and no communication with the sea. In August, 1837, two sahnon peal, measuring 14 in. in length and weighing 14 ounces, were taken with a fly, in excellent condition in every way, and in July, 1838, another small salmon was caught equal to the first in condition and colour, about 2 in. longer and 3 ounces heavier. A "pink" was transferred to a well at White- weU in November, 1837, and removed thence as a smolt 6J in. long in July, 1838. These and other similar instances wonld appear to point out that, as in the trout so in the salmon, the larger the extent of the water in which the fish resides, so much the more probable is it that it will more rapidly attain a large size. He remarked of the subject under consideration that " a knowledge of the growth of young salmon in a fresh- water lake may be useful to those gentlemen who possess lakes near salmon rivers, from which they can supply them with pinks. Whether salmon thus prevented going to salt water will stUl retain sufficient constitutional power to mature their roe, and, by depositing it in the usual manner, as far as circumstances permit, produce their species, would be a subject worthy of further investigation." {L. c. (Bd. 2), ii, p. 16.) Knox observed in the Proceedings Linnean Society, ii, p. 358, December 19th, 1854, that "from the time the salmon enters the fresh water it ceases to feed, properly speaking, although it may occasionally rise to a fly, or be tempted to attack a worm or a minnow, in accordance seemingly with its original habits as a smolt. But after first descending to the ocean and tasting its marine food, it never again resorts to its infantile food as a constant mode of nourishment. The absence of this marine kind of sustenance forms an insurmountable obstacle to the preserva- tion of salmon and some kinds of sea trout in fresh-water lakes." Bertram — observing upon having been present at Stormontfield at the yearly exodus of smolts in 1861, when they were found to be large and in fine condition — continued, "One fish, which has been detained for three years for the purpose of discovering whether the species will grow in fresh water without being permitted to visit the sea, was found to be fully twice the size of the largest smolt" (Harvest of the Sea, 1865, p. 110). It must not be overlooked in experiments of this nature thai the extent of the fresh water in which these fish are confined must exercise a considerable influence upon the result, and also on the amount and suitability of the food which is available for their consumption. Buist (1866) published a letter from Mr. G. Anderson of Glasgow, which appeared in The Field, June 20th. With it he sent a salmon par which had not put on the smolt livery and gone to the sea from Stormontfields at the 2-year-old migration. It was long enough to be 3 lb. in weight, and only weighed 1 lb. Without the possibility of doubt it had been confined to fresh water for six years, and where a sufiiciency of food existed. Dr. Murie in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 249, gave an account of some Bhine salmon hatched in the Zoological Society's Gardens in 1863, and which lived there in fresh water until 1868. At the usual migration period of May in 1865 those which were smolts tried to escape by leaping out of the tank, while it was remarked that such as had assumed the silvery smolt livery at the beginning of the year, but were unable to go to the sea, lost it in the autumn, when they again became par-marked. Only two lived to the fifth year. These fish had been kept in a compara- tively small tank with a stream of running water, a subject which it is very necessary to bear in mind, because, although here they were subject to an arrest of development, such may have been due to the small space in which they were confined or the limited amount of water which they obtained, irrespective of which the changes of temperature may have been considerable. Yarrell (Growth of Salmon in'Fresh Water) remarked "that the rate of growth in young salmon has some reference to the size of the place to which they are restricted, receives further confirmation in these river, lake, and well specimens. The smolt taken from the well in July, 1838, where it had been confined for eight months, was rather smaller in size at that time than the smolts in the preceding April, though both were pinks of the same year, namely 1837. The smolt taken from the lake in August, 1838, which then measured 7J in., had also grown more rapidly than that in the well, but had not acquired the size it would have gained had it been ^owed to go to sea. Further it may be observed, that the salmon peal from the lake in August, 1837, then 18 months old, though perfect in colour, is small for its age ; while that of July, 1838, or 29 months old, is comparatively stiU more deficient in growth, supposing both fish to have resulted from pinks of the year 1836, and put into the lake at the same time; of^which there was no doubt, since the lake, the formation of which, though commenced in the autumn of 1835, was not finished till February, 1836, soon after which the first pinks were put in." The Duke of Buccleuch's gamekeeper at Bowhill was for some years in the practice of putting a few smolts into a fresh-water pond, and feeding them regularly with bullock's liver. He reported that the smolts which grew into salmon throve for about three years and then died, but that bull-trout smolts kept in good condition for a longer period. " Into a deserted stone-quarry near Coldstream, filled with rain-water, two smolts, about 3 in. long, were put by boys out of njere amusement. One of these grew into a salmon, which when 5 years old, weighing IJ lb., was caught and sent to Mr, Stoddart of Kelso, who had it boiled for SALMON— BREEDING WITHOUT GOING TO THE SEA. 101 intended at Howletoun to re-open tlie mvestigatlon after an interval of forty-five years. But as it was not improbable that objections would be raised were young fish captured in the rivers used for this purpose, it was determined to I'ear the par from the eggs and ascertain whether the smolts and grilse thus raised would or would not breed in fresh water. In such investigations as those which I am about to detail I need scarcely dilate upon the necessity of first being absolutely certain respecting the species upon which these experiments are made ; secondly, on there being most absolute segregation of the eggs and young from those of all other forms. That segregation is complete at Howietoun I need hardly remark upon to those who have visited the establishment. dinner. He reported that it was not unpalatable. The othes smolt grew into a bull-trout and lived for seven years. It died during a very severe winter when, on account of the water being frozen, it could not be fed." — Extract from Beport of Experimental Committee to the Tweed Commissioners. Dr. Gruuther {Introduction, Study of Fish. 1880, p. 639) considered that "the question of whether any of the migratory species of Sahmmida can be retained in fresh water, and finally accommodate themselves to a permanent sojourn thereia, must be negatived for the present." Up to 1880 he doubted the instances of successful experiments which had been brought forward, as he was not convinced that the young fish introduced into ponds were really migratory SalmonidcB and not hybrids. He had previously recorded {Fisherman's Magazine, i, 1864, p. 157) how to test the truth of whether migratory Salmonidce perish if prevented from going to the sea at the proper season, the Eev. Augustus Morgan experimented during several years with full- grown sea trout, half-grown sewin, and with salmon, but all the specimens died, although there was plenty of food in the pond ; the fresh- water trouts remained perfectly healthy. The dead specimens presented a remarkable appearance, the body being as lean and elongated as in a lake : all the internal parts were much inflamed. Mr. Douglas Ogilbie in 1881 took about 100 sea trout and salmon smolts, which he turned into Lough Ash, Co. Tyrone, which has no access to the sea. April 30, 1883, he captured a smolt or grilse li\ in. long in this lake, where salmon had not previously been seen. Its abdomen was so distended that he considered it would have spawned very shortly, more especially as it was taken at the mouth of the only stream that enters this lough. The specimen is in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, and is evidently a true Salmo salar, and as such I described it in the Proceedings Zool. Soc. 1884, p. 584, while the eggs in spirit were each 0'25 of an inch in diameter. Provided there had been a ripe male in the vicinity, there seems no reason why this fish should not have deposited her eggs, and such might have given rise to a land- locked race. * Shaw remarked that solitary instances have occurred of large female pars having been found in salmon rivers with the roe considerably developed, and he ascertained that by detaining the female smolt in fresh water until the end of the third winter individuals are found in this com- paratively mature condition. Davy {Trans. Royal Soc. Edin. 1854, xxi, p. 253) observed that he had examined hundreds of pars, and had frequently found the males with milt, but never a female with roe correspondingly developed. On the contrary, the females, without exception, had the ovaries so smaU that without they had been carefully sought for they would have escaped notice. Eussell denied that female pars ever had the roe developed. Yarrell {Brit. Fish. 1836) recorded that Mr. Heysham had sent him an example 7 in. long having both lobgs in a forward state, as weU as notice of a female taken in March with large ova : Mr. Couch also informed him of a similar case in the Dart in March. Brown {Stormontjields Experiments, 1862, p. 89) considered that no female par had yet been discovered with the roe developed, possibly meaning no young salmon in the par livery had been seen with the ova fully developed ; for, as I shall endeavour to show, smolts with par bands have given eggs at Howietoun. Brown reared the young from eggs to the smolt stage and obtained at Stonehaven a salt-water pond for their reception into which the sea ebbed and fiowed, but poachers destroyed the experiment. March 4th, 1859, M. Julius Cloquet read a paper before the French SociUi d' Acclimation on the breeding of salmon in a pond without descending to the sea (vol. vi, 1859, p. 256). The small pond which was the scene of this experiment was situated in the hollow of a wooded valley, which was not more than a hectare in superficial extent. Its depth was from six metres towards the end where the bound was erected, while in the remainder of its extent its richly herbivorous bottom sloped towards the edges like those of a basin. Some trout were first introduced, and in April and May, 1857, many thousand salmon, which at twenty-two months had an average weight of 120 grammes and from twenty-five to thirty centimetres in length. Females were found full of eggs ; these were artificially fecundated, and got so far as to be close upon hatching. Dr. Giinther, after remarking how conclusively Shaw has demonstrated that par are the young of salmon, and that they may contain milt, continued, " No par has ever been found with mature ova" {Introduction to the Study of Fishes, 1880, p. 639). Mr. Gosden observed that in the Bxe par- marked fish, graveling or smolt, so-called, have been taken with ova actually exuding from the fish on being handled for the purpose of removing the hook. 102 SA-LMONID^ OF BEITAIN. In Decem'ber, 1880, Sir James Maitland obtained some salmon in the Teith, from -wliicli lie personally took eggs and milt, and in Marcli, 1881, the ova were hatched. In due course the young were transferred to pond No. 7 at Howietoun. This pond is lined with wood, and its extent 100 ft. long by 16 ft. broad, 8 ft. deep in the centre, and 6| ft. on either side, while the average supply of water passing through it is 1,000,000 gallons a day. In July, 1883, in the presence of several of the foreign commissioners to the " Great International Fisheries Exhibition," and other invited guests, this pond was netted, when it was seen that some of the young salmon, then two years and four months old, were of a general golden colour, spotted, and in the livery of the banded par stage, while others were beautiful silvery smolts, similar to such as we generally find descending to the sea, and which, in certain lights, showed par bands. Although, as a general rule, the smolts were the larger, still a few of the pars exceeded the smolts in size. October 10, 1883, one of these fish, which was under 1 lb. in weight, in the smolt livery,* but still showing par bands, jumped out f of the pond, and was found dead on the path. On being opened it proved to be a female, with com- paratively large ova, which were of a deep reddish colour, thus almost disposing of the statement that " no par has ever been found with a mature ova." I say almost, because as yet the ova were not quite mature, although they would have become so had not the fish met with an untimely fate. Also the objection might be raised that it was a smolt, not a par, and although the par bands were present, certainly the golden tinge seen in the young of the salmon was absent. At the end of November, 1883, several of these fish during the night and early morning were found to have jumped out of the pond, and it was surmised that more might have been carried ofi by rats or birds. On November 29th two more, one being 11| in. in length, were found dead ; this latter was a silvery smolt, with par bands, and on being opened proved to be full of ripe milt. A net having been employed, three fish were removed for examination. The first was a silvery smolt, 10"8 in. in length, which in certain lights distinctly showed the par bands ; the generative organs were not developed. The second, 9 in. long, was more distinctly par- marked, but otherwise very similar. The third was 6'3 in. in length, in the par dress, and was a male full of milt.J As a rule the females were silvery, although the ova was not ripe, but the males, on the contrary, when pressed, gave ripe milt. Generally the smolts appeared to be more spotted than such as are taken in a state of nature in the rivers ; the largest was 13| in. long. Those in the golden par livery seemed to be males, most of which were ripe, while the silvery smolts were mostly females. These fish rendered it very evident that the relative growth of the fry does not depend on the size of the pond, quantity, quality, or variety of food, or amount of water, as all had been treated alike, yet they varied in length from 4 in. to 13^ in. During the month of May, 1884, sixteen of these fishes jumped out of the pond and were found dead, and the breeding organs in all were found to be developing in a satisfactory manner. August 28th, 1884, an examination was made of pond No. 7, and a smolt Ijlb. in weight and 14' 1 in. long was removed ; it proved to be a female with the ova well forward, the largest being O'l of an * The beautiful illustrations of grilse in Sir W. Jardine's magnificent Salmonidie do not resemble in colour the Howietoun fish, which latter are more spotted than his 2 lb. 13 oz. specimen from the Solway Firth, taken in July, and even more so than his 3 J lb. fish captured in August. ■)• Brown {Stormontfields Experiments) observed that "in the month of February, 1836, caught a dozen and a half par in the Tay, and kept them confined in a stream of running water, and by the month of May the whole of them had become smolts ; but some had leaped out of their confinement in their struggle to find their way to the sea, and were found dead on the side of the pond " (pp. 7 and 8). f The teeth in the vomer of a par were as follows : — Three on the hind edge of the head of that bone, behind that a pair, then two placed one at an angle to the other, and subsequently eight in a single row, but with their points somewhat divergent. There was very little change seen in those of the smolt, while in one 13 in. long, that spawned in 1884, the same dentition prevailed. SALMON— BREEDING WITHOUT GOING TO THE SEA. 103 inch in diameter. October 4th, one 13 in. long, which had jumped out of the pond, proved to be a female, and the eggs were 0'2 of an inch in diameter ; in fact, of mature size. From this time the fishes commenced constantly jumping out of the pond and meeting with fatal injuries ; they did so towards the upper end, where the stream of water entered, as if seeking for a place where they could ascend it. Wire netting was now fixed around the upper part of the pond, but against this the fish continued to spring. About the middle of October, fungus, Saprolegnia ferax, showed itself, most probably due to the injuries occasioned by their endeavours to escape. It was also observed that they ceased from feeding, so a number of small Lochleven trout were added to vary their diet, but which they did not appear to consume many of. November ?th, 1884, a smolt, IJlb. in weight, was found lying almost dead by the side of pond ?, and from it about 100 apparently ripe eggs were expressed. These were milted from a Lochleven trout. On January 23rd, 1885, eighteen of these eggs hatched, and when I first saw them on February 10th the young were looking remarkably well and vigorous ; none of them seemed to be in the slightest degree deformed. So far as I am aware this is the first successful attempt in Great Britain made at raising young from salmon eggs the parent of which has never descended to the sea, but passed its entire existence in fresh water. November 14th, 1884, the water was drawn off from pond No. 7, as the wood with which it is lined required recharring, and the fish were placed in pond No. 5, just done up and previously inhabited by brook trout, but which were now turned into the bum as being too old to be worth further preserving. Sixty- eight young salmon were transferred, the majority being males, while the fishes showed all the gradations in colouring from the golden and banded par to the silvery smolts. These latter, however, had not lost their par-bands, while some of the larger ones were distended with ova. All the fish in the full par dress were males, but so were some of the silvery smolts. About two dozen eggs were obtained from one,- but they did not germinate, possibly not being quite ripe. Three smolts were too injured to live. These were opened ; their ovisacs were found to be distended with eggs, almost but not quite ripe, being still slightly adherent. As thesp young salmon became ready for continuing their species, the following ova were obtained in December, and laid down in the hatching- house. December 1st, 1884 (box 104a), 1500 eggs from two smolts, which were treated with the milt of one of the males. These eggs averaged each 0"22 of an inch in diameter. About 400 hatched February 21st, or in eighty-two days. December 9th (box 108a), about 4000 eggs of these smolts were fertilized with the milt of one of the males ; these eggs averaged each 0'20 of an inch in diameter. About 2200 hatched February 27th, 1885. As the further development of these experiments is fully followed out by Sir James Maitland, in his History of Howietoun, it only becomes necessary for me to observe that I exhibited at a meeting of the Linnean Society in November, 1886, a par 5f in. long, taken the week previously from a fine shoal of these fish at Howietoun, and which had been hatched there in March, 1885, from eggs and milt of parents that had never descended to the sea, the specimen being twenty months old and in excellent condition. Whether these fishes after a few generations will lose their migratory instincts and be satisfied to pass their lives and reproduce their kind in fresh waters, only time can show ; but they afford incontestible evidence that a sojourn in salt water is not necessary in order for a grilse to develop eggs : and that migratory salmon are able to reproduce their kind in fresh water without migrating to the sea, thus removing one great obstacle which has stood in the way of ichthyologists admitting that a land-locked salmon can beget a race of Salmo solar. Having thus shown that salmon can be reared in fresh water and also breed without descending to the sea when in suitable localities, the question arises 104 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. whether snch an occurrence is seen in nature ; if, in fact, there are what may be termed wild land-locked races of this fish. Although it has been denied by Dr. Giinther that the land-locked salmon of Lake Wenern* are anything but trout, it is, as I have stated, owing to his unfortunately not having had the opportunity of examining the real local race. Scandinavian ichthyologists appear from early times to have considered it to be a local breed of the true salmon {Salmo salar), which had become unable, due to physical changes in the conformation of the country at some period long since gone by, to migrate seawards, and had consequently been compelled to pass its entire existence in fresh waters {see page 5). This opinion was strongly combated by Dr. Giinther in the Zoological Becord for 1864 ; for having obtained two forms of trout from Lake Wenern, he came to the conclusion that one must represent the land-locked salmon. This statement has possibly deterred fish-culturists from seeking this variety for artificial propagation, as, had Dr. Giinther's identification been correct, introducing either of these two races of trout into our waters would certainly have been productive of little, if any, benefit. Having had an opportunity of closely examining a pair of undoubted Lake Wenern salmon in 1883,t I must express my opinion that they certainly resemble * In the year 1863 Widegren gave it as his opinion that the different forms of Scandinavian tront were local races or varieties of one species, while a large ealmonoid from Lake Ladoga lie considered to be identical with Salmo salar, variety lacmtris of Hardin, and in these views Malmgren coincided. Professor Lov&i about this time ascertained that certain marine Arctic animals still survived at great depths in some of the Scandinavian lakes, as I have remarked (page 5 ante). Mahngrem believed that anadromous salmon might have had their descent to the ocean summarily stopped, and either themselves or their fry, which latter at least must have been in the fresh water, had to select between extinction or continuing their race under altered conditions. Hetting, the Superintendent of Fisheries in Norway, wrote to Dr. Soubeiran in February, 1866, remarking that the common salmon lives in Lake Wenern, and has done so from time immemorial, that it is now naturalized both there and in the great lakes of Norway, and where the conditions of nourishment are favourable, it loses nothing of its qualities — at least, that the Lake Wenern race rivals the marine salmon in its colour, taste, and size, while every year, from May until the end of autumn, it migrates from the lake towards Klara-elv, similar to the sea salmon, which at the same period quits the ocean in order to ascend into fresh waters. In 1866 Dr. Giinther, in the Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum, gave the local species of the genus Salmo (omitting the chars) from the Scandinavian Peninsula and Finland as follows : 1. Salmo mistops, Giinther ; 2. S. hardinii, Giinther ; 3. S. venemensis, Giinther, and a Lapland S. polyosteus, Gunther ; having come to the conclusion that all descriptions pub- lished up to that period by preceding authors were insuflScient for identification. To his second species he appended the synonomy of the land-locked salmon of Wenern, Salmo salar variety lacustris, but with a note of interrogation, as he was naturaUy doubtful whether the two referred to the same fish. In short, the true land-locked salmon of this lake finds no place in the cata- logue, and the two forms (S. hardinii and S. venemensis) recorded from thence in the work are local races of Salmo trutta. Owing to this unfortunate confusion. Dr. Giinther concluded that the Lake Wenern land-locked salmon, which he supposed S. hardinii might be, had smaller scales (or thirteen transverse rows on the tail) than the true salmon, which has only twelve or less at that spot, but admitted that it never entered the sea, being found in the Lake Wenern, into which no marine fish can ascend, in consequence of intervening cataracts. He continued : " A fanciful idea has been started that it is a salmon, with some of the characters modified, in consequence of its compulsory residence in a fresh- water lake. We cannot see how such a change in the life of a fish has the effect of diminishing the size of the scales " (p. 108). Certainly it must be admitted that, although a lake salmon may vary in appearance as much as might a lake trout from its river relatives, still the number of scales would keep within the same limits. While having had the opportunity of examining the specimens in the British Museum alluded to in the catalogue, there can be no doubt that the enumeration there given is generally correct. But the real question is whether his enumeration of the scales is that which exists in the true Wenern salmon ? t The male is nearly 81 in. in length, has 115 rows of scales, and from nine to ten in an oblique Une from the adipose dorsal fin to the lateral-line ; it possesses fifty-five ccBCal appendages, and the milt semi-mature. The female is between 32 and 83 in. in length, has 116 rows of scales, and from nine to ten in an oblique line from the adipose dorsal fin to the lateral-line. It also possesses fifty-five cffical appendages, while the eggs are semi-mature. Further description would be out of place here, and I can only say that these fish, if stuffed, could not be separated from the salmon. The ctecal appendages are rather restricted in number, still as few as fifty-three have been recorded from a salmon, and we do not yet know the conditions under which these appendages vary in their number, unless, as seems possible, those living in the best feeding- grounds and having a large range possess the greatest number. The scales on the tail do not resemble in number those of the trout in its various races. SALMON— LAND-LOOKED RACES. 105 S. solar in all points, and are not identical with any of the Scandinavian races described by Dr. Giinther in the Oatalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum. There appears to be one remarkable point of divergence between the Scan- dinavian and American land-locked salmon. In the first Malmgren found that the eggs had decreased in number and diminished in size ; whereas Mather says of the latter it " may be noted that though in maturity smaller, in embryonic stages the land-locked salmon are larger ; the eggs perhaps being ten per cent, greater in diameter." Atkins, however, found them smaller, so they may vary in difEerent localities, possibly in accordance with the food supply. It is certainly remarkable that among the Scandinavian land-locked races some are found in a number of lakes with broad outlets into the sea. Also respecting the land-locked salmon of America, Mr. Atkins, in 1884, observed that he did not think we have any evidence that the land-locking of the species has occurred during recent geological periods. " There is nothing at present to prevent any of these salmon going out to sea from any of those waters where they are now found. There are obstructions to their coming back if they once went to the sea ; and these same obstructions would hinder the sea salmon having access to the upper waters, where the land-locked salmon now live."* Should it be decided to etockf some of our larger and clear lakes with this race of land-locked salmon, J it might be worth considering -whether eggs obtained from Lake' Wenern, which is slightly north of the British Isles, would not be more likely to succeed than those from the United States, where the waters are entirely to the south of Great Britain. While a trial of the two forms would be of greater utility than all the theories which could be advanced on the subject. It seems very questionable whether these fishes are suited to our rivers, which * The land-locked race of salmon found in the State of Maine and neighbouring portions of Canada, in Lake Sebago, Lake Sabec, and the Schoodic lakes, are also identical in external form with Salmo salar. That similar conditions in America may occasion the same changes is exceed- ingly interesting, but only what might be expected. These salmon Agassiz considered to be identical with the lake sahnon, or SaXmo argenteus (silfverlax) of Sweden. Mr. Atkins, who has made a special study of these American forms of land-locked salmon, tells U3 that there are differences which point towards a theory of arrested development, such as the dark par bands which are retained through life, as may be seen by removing the scales. Such appearances were not present in any of the Wenern fish as have come under my observation, perhaps twenty or thirty in all. In the United States some land-looked forms give fewer and smaller eggs than the anadromous race, while ovarian disease has been found to be frequent. They only cease feeding for a few weeks at the breeding time, and undertake two migrations yearly frorn the lakes to the streams. The first is in May, and continues untU August ; it seems to be for the sole purpose of feeding. The second or " fall " migration begins in September, and ceases at the commencement of winter, and is for breeding. The land-locked salmon in the breeding season never assumes such bright colours as do male sea or river salmon, while Atkinson observed of the Schoodic lake, " Here, as in many other instances that I know of, the salmon move down from the lake into its outlet at the spawning season, instead of up into the tributaries. It follows that the young fish, instead of dropping down with the current, as many sea-salmon do, are in the habit of ascending their native streams tiU they reach the deep water above." These salmon, in the United States, as well as in Canada, are inferior in size to the anadro- mous race for in the Penobscot the average adult is given at about 13 lb., while among the Sebago race the largest average 5 lb., although a solitary instance has been recorded of one of 25 lb. that had been found dead. Although these forms seem to thrive best where the waters are very deep, still to this general rule there are some exceptions. Large numbers of eggs from this race, some of which are much larger than those of our salmon, have been brought into this country, and many hundreds of yearlings are thriving at Howietoun. f In some cases it has been found that the introduction of sabnon into pieces of water frequented by trout has not been conducive to the well-being of the latter species. { In case at a future date the following observation from Land and Water, 1886, should raise discussion, I may mention that the fish alluded to below (of which I have a series of specimens) were trout, S. purpuratus, but not S. salar. The extract alluded to was as foUows : — ■ "Laud-Looked Sadmon. Three specimens of this Canadian fish, about 14 in. in length, which have been presented to Mr. Thomas Spreckley by the Science and Art Department at Kensington, were taken to Chertsey on Thursday last, and placed in one of the tanks belonging to Mr. James Forbes, of Chertsey Bridge, prior to their being turned into the Thames in that neighbourhood." 106 SALMONID^ OF BRITAUiT. are destitute of lakes, as they would certainly require considerable range and abundance of food. For in sucb cases lakes would be to the land-locked salmon as the sea is to the anadromous form, and the derision with which the statements of Norwegian ichthyologists that these fishes were the descendants of Salmo solar was received in this country must now be admitted to have been an error. What are the limits of reproduction among the salmon ? is a question which has often been propounded, but to which various replies have been given. Among fishes generally it exists to a very different degree, thus our catadromous eels would seem to pass many seasons in a sterile condition, only reproducing their species when they descend to salt water. In the salmon, although it is evident that the male is capable of producing milt before it is twenty-four months of age, such is very deficient in marital powers, while in the female eggs seem rarely to be developed prior to its being thirty-six months old. The trout and the char will furnish eggs and milt when nearly two years of age, but even among these fishes the female is rarely so far advanced as the male. Among salmon permanent or temporary sterility may occur. Thus in those cases in which it is permanent* such may be owing in some individuals to their not being sexually developed, as observed by Siebold, or to a mechanical diffi- culty in the ova being extruded : or if extruded the eggs themselves may be sterile, due to the spermatozoa being of too great a size to enter the micropyle of the ovum, or sterility may be consequent upon some physiological cause, possibly as close interbreeding, deficiency of food, or unsuitable residence,t affecting the reproductive system to such an extent as to preclude the formation or at least the fertility of the eggs. And, lastly, hybridity may be a cause, and which will be considered when the various hybrids are described. Cases of temporary sterility are seen, as in clean-run salmon ascending our rivers every month in the year, while it is manifestly impossible that such as do so, as I have described, in November (see p. 69) could breed that season, and they evidently were not kelts that had bred. But in such fish a very slight development of milt or roe may be detected by means of the microscope. I These seasonally sterile fish would seem to corroborate the view advanced by Mr. Atkins that salmon breed on alternate years {see p. 79) . Hybridism in a natural state is supposed to be rare as regards the salmon, but that such may take place has been proved by Rasch, Sir James Maitland, and others who have fertilized their ova with the milt of the trout and of the char, and vice versa, and obtained fertile progeny, as will be treated of further on. These fish do not lose their anadromous instincts when the period of migration arrives, so could not be utilized as a land-locked race§, on the supposition that they would be sterile and so lose the desire to migrate seawards. Respecting stocking rivers with "alevins," or young salmon in which the yolk-sac is very nearly or just absorbed, various opinions are held. Some * Widegren considered that the form of the caudal fin and the ooloura of the fish ars connected with the development of the sexual organs : as will be referred to when treating of trout. 5 Some fish, although apparently in good health, will not breed when kept in an aquarium. Mr. Pfennell gave evidence before a Parliamentary Committee that clean salmon with only a thread of milt or roe in tbem are found in rivers during December, January, and February, and he considered tbat tbese fish do not spawn until the November or December following, remaining ten or twelve months in the fresb water, their ova developing until they are ready to spawn, and that, although discoloured, due to tbeir residence, they are very good eating. Brown (Stontumtfields Experiments), pp. 94, 95, caught one of these fish in a Sutherlandshire river and gave the same report. He also remarked that the foregoing fish are strong, able to overcome falls and penetrate to the extreme feeders of the rivers, whereas those fish which do not leave the sea until heavy with spawn could not overcome falls or ascend any considerable distance. § Professor Baird {United States Fisheries Report, 1875-76, p. 13) observed, "Another subject of consideration by the convention was the hybridizing of fish, with a view of removing the instinct of migration, and by the atrophy of the sexual apparatus, allowing a more rapid accession of flesh and fat, as is the case of hybrids and castrated domestic animals." Professor Brown Goode remarked, 1884, respecting hybrid salmonidse being likely to remain in the head waters of the streams : " Such is the theory of certain EngUsh experts, but it occurs to me that their theory is without very good foundation." SALMON— FOOD OP. lOJ" believe that by this means the mimber of fishes in a river can be largely increased. Others maintain that such a proceeding merely increases the number of fry which are preyed upon by every species of vermin (p. 44). But as this has certainly proved beneficial in some rivers, if not in all, it simply comes to the question of whether their enemies are too great for their being able to survive, and which must always be a question for local knowledge and experience to decide.* The food consumed by the anadromous salmon is somewhat varied, for while living in the ocean they appear to lay in a sufficient stock of fat, which is most readily seen around the stomach and ceecal appendages, to last them when residing in fresh water, or at least until the spawning season has passed. I have seen the remains of sand-eels, Ammodytes, herrings, and Crustacea in their stomachs. Jardine remarked that on the Sutherlandshire shores they are often captured on haddock lines baited with sand eels. Thompson, in Ireland, also found these fish eating sand-eels, and that they were occasionally taken in Dundrum Bay upon lines baited with pieces of mackerel which were laid for mullet. Morrison recorded having captured salmon within flood mark, some of which contained two, others three, full-sized herrings. In the British Museum are the remains of a gar-fish, Belone, taken out of a salmon captured in fresh water, but evidently only lately from the sea. One of 24 lb. being opened, two trout (size six to a pound) were found inside it (Fishing Gazette, December 20th, 1879).t Parnell (Fishes of the Frith of Forth, p. 287) observed "in the county of Devon as well as in Loch Lomond in the north, I have taken grilse with the minnow, and the common earth-worm is a deadly bait for the clean salmon. On dissecting the alimentary canal of several dozens of salmon that were taken in salt water, I seldom failed in discoveriag the remains of some kind of food in the lower intestines, the stomach itself being almost invariably empty. In one out of five I found the remains of Crustacea and bones, apparently of the sand-eel and other small fish. I have repeatedly found the remains of worms and aquatic insects in the intestines of those salmon that were taken in rivers and lakes ; but in those fish which were far advanced in roe both stomach and intestines were almost invariably empty."J * Eamsbottom, of Clitheroe, in The Salmon and its Artificial Propagation, 1854, observed " What would be the fate of any number of defenceless fry which might be turned into a river ? It would be as reasonable to expect a return of salmon from so many flies as from fry thus recklessly exposed to destruction " (p. 61). " To turn one or two hundred thousand smalts into a river would afford a vastly different result from exposing the same number of young fry. Instead of being liable, for upwards of two years, to the attacks of their enemies, their stay in the river would be but temporary " (i.e., p. 61). t Mr. Gosden (Land and Water, March 8th, 1886), remarked : — " In 1874 I opened 490 salmon and examined the contents of their stomachs ; 290 from the river Bxe, 150 from the Eiver Dart, and 50 peal from the Dart. In these I found eels, minnows, loach, gudgeon, sand-eels, shrimps, &o. A friend of mine in Exeter caUed my attention on May 19, 1874, to an eel about a foot long. This was partly digested ; also to a carp taken from a salmon caught in Hampshire waters, and a half -digested grey mullet from an Exe fish." Also another correspondent observed in the same paper on February 20, 1886, as follows : — " I have seen salmon feeding in both river and lake and am simply astonished that any person could maintain that they do not. . . . Salmon are no doubt heavy feeders while in the sea, and also while in the estuary. I have taken no fewer than eleven herrings out of a ten-pound grilse caught at the mouth of the Ayr. I saw at Dalmeny five smaU sprats talien out of a sahnon. A salmon caught at Kincardine had in its stomach seven sparUng, besides other small shrimps ; another caught high up the Eorth, at Polnaise, contained a smolt and eighteen shrimps ; one taken at Craignorth Cruives, twenty-seven young eels ; others having swallowed a trout fuUy half a pound and every imaginable insect, flies, beetles, worms and spiders. So it is all nonsense to say that salmon, when in fresh water, live upon love. In 1844 two salmon caught on Loch Tay in May had in their stomachs one and two young char quite entire, besides partially digested pieces of others." Some Severn fishermen believe that elvers are largely consumed by salmon, and in the Usk there is a local saying, " a good year of prides (small lamperns), a good year of salmon." t Dr. Davy (Physiological Researches) wished to ascertain whether the usually empty condition of the stomach in salmon in fresh water is or is not accompanied by the presence of gastric juice ? He took test papers, considering that if there it must be acid. August 24th, he tried on four salmon taken in the sea, about three hours after capture, there was no solid food or liquid, only a little adhering mucus, and no effect was produced on the litmus paper. 26th, four more 108 SALMONID^ OP BRITAIN. From time to time discussions arise as to whetker salmon do or do not feed in fresh waters, some maintaining that they do, while others hold contrary opinions, the argument which is generally adduced against their doing so being that as a rule very little, if any, food is found in the stomachs of those captured in rivers which are far distant from the salt water. Many of those who admit that the male par or the mending kelt will feed in fresh waters, hold that salmon as a rule do not increase in weight when absent from salt water ; but proof in figures is still wanting to uphold this theory as applicable to all salmon, while excreta from the vent may be seen in some, and which must be the remains of food that they have consumed.* It seems possible to divide salmon ascending rivers into two classes : first such as will breed within a short period after their ascent, and secondly, such as will not do so without again descending to the sea, being clean-run fish. This raises the question whether the latter of these classes or the clean-run salmon may not be the feeders ; whereas the breeders are more or less abstainers. In recording investigations on this subject it is desirable that the sex and condition of the fish should be ascertained, because many piscine forms, such as shad, trout, and char, more or less cease feeding at the period of spawning and subsist on the fat stored up in their bodies. At Howietoun, in 1 882, as the time for the smolts to give eggs arrived, they were observed to go off their feed, and young fish were supplied to tempt their appetites, but only with moderate success, and subsequent to the breeding season they came on their feed again (see p. 103 ante). On March 10th, 1886, Mr. Olive, fishmonger in the Promenade, Cheltenham, drew my attention to the condition of the belly in a male 12-lb. clean salmon received by him the previous day from the tidal portion of the Severn below Newnham. The stomach was very distended, and on being removed from the fish it was found to measure 7 in. in length and contained twenty-two entire sprats (Glupea sprattus), the smallest being 2'6 in. long, and the largest 4|, while all were quite fresh. Their eyes were bright, their fins complete, and their scales as adherent as is generally seen in those fishes as exhibited for sale : they had scarcely been acted upon by the gastric juices, tending to show that, at times at least, digestion in these fishes is not very rapid. This he informed me was the first instance of fish present in a salmon's stomach, that he, Mr. Olive, had seen in forty years' experience. One modifying circumstance in the feeding of the salmon has been observed to be connected with a muddy state of the river, possibly interfering with respiration, consequent upon the amount of mud which had been swaUowed.f Similarly taken were found to be empty, and only gave a slight alkaline reaction. August 27th, September 3rd and 6tb, two salmon and one grilse taken with the fly in fresb waters, their stomachs were empty, and reactions the same. In par and smolts he obtained different results, food was always present in tbeir stomachs and gave an acid reaction, the examination being made so soon as they had been taken from the water. Sea trout taken with fly in fresh water in the majority of instances afforded results similar to those of the salmon, in some, which contained food, giving an acid reaction, only once in forty-two trials did he find an acid reaction occur with an empty stomach. Brook trout gave the same results. * T. Harris, in the Field, March 29th, 1884, observed that on March 22nd a fresh fish of 321b. weight had been taken with a rod and line in the Hampshire Stour about four miles from Christ- church, the bait used being a dace, 4 or 6 in. long and light trolling tackle. This was the second fish killed with a dace bait during the year, and in each case after fly and prawn had failed. Either three or four were killed the previous year with similar bait, the other two fish weighed respectively 11 lb. and 19 lb. Mr. Robinson sent to the office of The Field on September 7th, 1885, a small trout 6 in. long, taken from the stomach of a female fresh-run grilse 6J lb. weight, from Well Pool, Thurso river. t Mr. C. Pennell observed that "in the Spey, for instance, in Scotland, fish rise most freely and as freely take the fly almost in the tideway which cotoes up but a short distance. In the Wye, where the tide runs ten miles up, the fish do not take freely till they have run up seventy miles. Does this result from the fact that the Spey fish are never in muddy Water ? the sea and river being quite clear, and the bottom pebbly, whereas the fish come twenty miles up the muddy Severn, and then have ten or more mOes of muddy Wye besides to run up before they get to clear water. This may make them so sick that they do not recover before reaching the Hay in Breconshire, and only above that, seventy miles from the mouth, do they take freely" (Badminton Series, p. 181). SALMON— CAUSES OF DESTEUOTION TO. 109 While mud or dirt in rivers may occasion deleterious consequences to the fish, owing to its containing injurious ingredients. The young par takes any hait with avidity, and at almost any time, even when the trout refuses to rise, while their stomachs are often found gorged with the larvae of aquatic insects, even when the milt is exuding from the fish. Mr. Tegetmeier observed (Proo. Zool. Soo. 1868) that the smolts which left the Stormontfields ponds in May that year were much larger than those of the previous season, due to their diet having been changed from boiled ox-liver rubbed down to coarse powder, for this season the aquatic weeds in the ponds had become covered with Limnea ovata Yax.,peregra, on which they fed greedily and to which the great increase in size was undoubtedly to be attributed. The causes of destruction among these fishes may be disease, or consequent upon the modes of capture adopted by man or the lower animals, and can be divided into, (1) those consequent on the condition of the waters they inhabit, (2) atmospheric disturbances and accidents, (3) diseases, (4) misplaced energy in fishing or the work of poachers, and (6) injuries occasioned by the lower animals. (1.) Waters may be of such a directly poisonous character,* as to at once kill the fish in them, or be rendered mechanically unfit for their residence, as by the presence of mud which checks or even stops respiration at the gills. Or the water may be so polluted that the living food which ought to be present has been destroyed. The Salmonidce will perish in waters wherein some fish will live, while possibly bull-heads Oottus gdbio, gudgeonsf Gohio fluviaUUs, and loach Nemacheilus harhatula, will thrive where salmon would die. Also what would be poisonous to the fry may be faced with greater impunity by the old fish. Among the substances which have proved directly poisonous are the refuse of gas tanks, mine washings, chloride of lime, caustic potash, and the refuse from manufactories, paper mills, bleaching grounds, tanneries, or sewers. Also artificial root manure washed into rivers from cultivated fields, sheep dippings, and other destructive agencies. The more rapid the current, the more quickly ai'e the poisons dispersed and diluted ; consequently the less chance of their being immediately fatal to the fish, but they may be permanently injured thereby and possibly give rise to a debilitated offspring and infirm race (see p. 27 ante). (2.) Atmospheric disturbances, accidents, and a great rise or a similar fall in the temperature may be destructive, thus a severe frost may freeze the redds wherein the eggs are deposited and destroy their vitality (p. 35 ante), while too high a temperature is very fatal to the young. Electric distnrbances may likewise * "In Ireland, during July and August, brown salmon from the south coast are frequently poisoned and consigned to England for sale : any fish having white gills and white eyes are certainly poisoned fish and naturally unwholesome as ioodi."— Field, July 19th, 1884. ■j- I observed in British and Irish Fishes, p. civ, that "when a river in India becomes unduly full of mud the crabs retire to the banks, and even the eels leave the stream for the wet grass in the vicinity. This attempt to escape from water loaded with ingredients inimical to life has likewise been observed among the invertebrate forms of Europe, as was some years since pointed out by M. Gerardin, in Prance. A series of experiments and investigations showed that colour, taste, odour, or chemical composition cannot invariably be accepted as criteria of whether water is wholesome or the reverse, but that such must be looked for in its eflect upon the animals and plants which reside in it. When fish died from river pollution it was observed that molluscs sometimes saved themselves by hiding under leaves and waiting there until the danger had passed away : thus, in July, 1869, Limnea remained five days out of the water. Among plants, one of the most delicate was found to be the watercress, and it was remarked that when some deleterious substance from a starch factory obtained access to the Croult above the cress-beds of Gonesse, all these plants died within a few hours : the pollution removed, the cress-beds again flourished. Pond weeds and veronicas only live in water of good quahty ; mints, rushes, and water lilies, accommodate themselves to mediocre water ; Garex is stiU less sensitive ; and lastly, the most robust of water plants is a species of reed, Arundo phragmites, which resists the most infected water. Among molluscs, the Physa fantinalis lives only in very pure water, the Valvata piscinalis in that which is healthy, while others can reside in that which is of mediocre quality ; no mollusc will live in what is thoroughly polluted. The phanerogamous or flowering plants thus sketch in distinct traits the character of different streams ; but infusoria and cryptogams, and particularly alga, may also enable one to judge in the matter by the modifications to which they are subject from alterations of the water. Those lower organisms survive after the disappearance of fish, of molluscs, and of green herbs." 110 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. be a cause of death, among these fishes; thus, on July 3rd, 1866, several salmon in Scotland "were reported to have heen killed by lightning during the intensely hot weather which was then prevalent. Also thunderstorms may cause a rush of waters from roads, lanes and sewers, sweeping with it every kind of filth, without a sufficient flood in the river to carry it ofE. Dynamite employed for blowing up the remains of the Tay bridge destroyed fishes as far as a couple of miles away. (3.) Diseases may directly attack these fish whether developing in the eggs, in the stage of infancy, or as they mature, while some may be badly developed occasioning monstrosities, or malformed consequent upon accident (p. 41 ante). Space, however, will not permit an, account of the numerous affections to which fishes are subject, especially the young (see p. 46), from fungus to the many diseases of a contagious or non-contagious character. There are certain animal parasites which aSect fish that may be chiefly divided into such as are internal or entozoa, and others that are external or epizoa, also infusoria and parasitic fungi. Entozoa* are very common, and one form (Bothrioeephalus) is a common resident in the pyloric csBca of salmon : in fact, tapeworms would seem to be numerous, but most of these entozoa undergo transformation after changing their abode the final most frequently occurring in a water bird. Epizoa are likewise seen as small crustaceans, and those which are of most consequence to the salmon are of two classes ; first, such as are more essentially surface forms, as fish lice, that are able to move from place to place by means of their hooked and prehensile antennae, or even leave the fish and swim freely in the water. A parasite of this class, Lepeo^tlieirus stromii, Baird, belonging to the family Cali- gulidse, is found upon salmon when first arriving from the sea,t for they will only live in salt water ; while by means of their foot jaws they adhere to the body, on which they are able to move about from one locality to another. They are most commonly found in the gUl-cavity or inside the mouth, and they generally die soon after being removed from the water. Miiller and Pabricius both supposed that these parasites lived upon the mucus secreted from the fish. The second class of these epizoa are more sedentary forms, belonging to the family Lerneo- podadse, and which frequently have their heads imbedded in their victims' bodies. In fresb waters the gills, more especially of kelts, become attacked by a parasite, Lerneopoda salmonea, Linn., belonging to this family. Some imagine that it chiefly fixes itself to the SahnonidcB prior to spawning, while others believe that it mainly does so to kelts returning seawards : it dies from immersion in salt water. Parasitic fungi may also occur, and of late years one of a contagioxts and destructive character has been very virulent in our fresb waters, and epidemic since 1878. This is the Saprolegnia ferax, which has probably always been present J but requires a soil suitable for its germination and growth, and although some of the following are in certain places predisposing causes to this fatal complaint, still it has been observed where none such could have existed. Debility, however occa- sioned, seems to render these fishes susceptible to the disease, especially after injuries causing abrasions, as in kelts after the breeding season or having been netted, also unspent forms, but young fish may be also affected. Frosts, droughts, and polluted waters favour its extension, while, possibly, were fewer kelts pre- served and our rivers purer we should see less of the disease, especially where the currents are rapid. Rock salt has been found to be the best mode of treatment in fish ponds and aquaria ; and, while migrating to the sea would seem to arrest the fungus, it is not certain that it will not reappear on the salmon's return to the river. Once this fungus has attacked a fish, it may become the nucleus from which infection spreads, and within twenty-four hours, thousands of zoospores, which * Cooking fish infested with worms destroys the vitality of the latter, while they could not live in the human body. ■j- It has been assumed, and, I believe, with reason, that when salmon are captured with parasitical Caligi upon them, they cannot have been long from the sea ; still, so far as I know, experiments are still desirable to ascertain whether, it the fish came gradually into brackish and subsequently into fresh waters, these parasites would immediately succumb. X It is mentioned in the Fish Commission Eeport, 1860, as existing epidemically in the Severn four or five years previously (pp. 233, 234). SALMON— DISEASES OR CAUSES OP DESTRUCTION. Ill may be popularly termed minute germs or seeds provided with cilia, rendering them, capable of spontaneous motion, may become diffused tbrougli the water. These germs * arriving at a suitable spot develop into a fungus, and such a locality is found in any abraded spot on the body of a fish, where its roots strike downwards into the flesh and its free extremities come to the surface, forming the white fungus which has been aptly compared to the appearance of a piece of cotton-wool in water or a white furry spot, and is so destructive to fish suffering from this disease, consequent on exhaustion, irritation or suffocation when the respiratory organs are affected. (4.) Misplaced energy in fishing, or the work of the poacher, is often very detrimental \ to salmon fisheries, but is a subject which must be separately consi- dered. While legislators ought to clearly understand that increased present productiveness may be carried on at the expense of future years' supply, and that multiplying modes of destruction does not invariably tend to the benefit of either the fisherman or the consumer, also that leaving merely young or undersized fish to continue their race is a potent means of fisheries deteriorating. (5.) Injuries occasioned by the lower animals are numerous, and differ con- siderably in the adult stage from what they do among the ova and young. Along the sea coasts, in estuaries and the mouths of some rivers, porpoises, seals, gram- pusses and their allies commit great havoc among salmon and grilse. While in rivers especially, or spawning beds, otters are very destructive ; but they are credited with destroying eels, which are very detrimental to these fisheries. Some also believe that they act serviceably by capturing weak and diseased fish as they come on to the shallows, in a debilitated condition, and so curtail the spread of disease, but on the other hand some hold that they prefer healthy to diseased forms. Irrespective of mammals and birds which have been alluded to as detrimental to eggs and young fish (p. 28 ante) there are some birds that likewise attack adult fish, as the great black -beaked gull, Larus marinus, which on account of its well-known partiality is termed a " salmon gull " by the fishermen, in the lower reaches of the Severn. . This river falls with great rapidity, while owing to the shifting nature of its sands its course frequently alters and consequently it is not uncommon on falling tide for salmon to be left in a backwater. Now these gulls at once attack and kill them, commencing by picking out their victims' eyes with their powerful bills. Many forms of birds and fish will also eat the young salmon sm.olts ; and at the mouths of some rivers, as that of the Tweed, so many are destroyed by the coal-fish, GadMs virens, termed " podles," that men are employed to destroy these members of the cod family as vermin.J Trout, as has already been observed, are * Mr. Murray experimented upon fish which were inhabiting aquaria at South Kensington, and suffering from Saprolegnia ferax, although the fungus was not present in the water supplied. He found this fungus in some earthworms which had been obtained from outside the Museum, where the bones of fish which had died of this disease had been buried, and from which spot worms had twice been obtained to feed the aquatic animals in the tanks. Mr. Murray concluded that "the agreement thus established forces upon me the conclusion that the infectious material was obtained from the dead fish oast out : that during the damp weather it remained alive in its resting state, and was spread about by earthworms, and that it was finally conveyed by them into the tanks where the outbreak took place." — Annual Report of Inspector of Fisheries. t On the other hand respecting this disease a correspondent of Land and Water remarked : " In the good old days when ' waters ' let at as many pounds as they now do hundreds of pounds : when every man leistered and netted and burned and fished as suited his own pleasure : when close time was unknown, and fish were killed on the spawning beds by thousands, there were twenty fish at least where there is now one." To this it was replied, that even supposing over- crowding were injurious, the cause of that overcrowding in some rivers cannot be due to over preservation ; the number of salmon and grilse having steadily diminished in the Tweed from an annual average of 37,485 in five years, 1854-58, to 25,988 in the five years 1869-74. } It has been suggested that swans might be useful in salmon streams, or rather lakes, in order to devour the enormous masses of ova of perch and pike, and so diminish their predaceous foes. " Nahanik," in Land and Water, September 20th, 1886, observed of the salmon, that " there was a river in that district, a tributary of the Shannon, famous for salmon and white trout. In my boyish days these fish were killed in every way. There were eel weirs on every ford, and, when the salmon and trout were running, they were caught in thousands at the weirs, or were speared by torchlight. Between 1840 and 1850 all the eel weirs were taken away by Act of Parliament, and afterwards all the salmon and white trout disappeared. I took a great deal of trouble 112 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. very destructive to salmon eggs, while salmon-kelts destroy trout, and eels Lave been accnsed of doing great injury.* ReBpectiag the sahnon fisheries of the British Isles no accurate statistics exist, and fancy seems occasionally to have filled in what facts were unable to demon- strate. The annual value of these fisheries has been estimated at the present time to be as foUows :— England £100,000, Scotland £250,000, and Ireland £400,000. They are divisible into those of the fresh waters and such as are carried on in estuaries or in the sea. The Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Salmon Fisheries of England and Wales in 1860 stated that they " found the fisheries generally in a state of lamentable depression." While Mr. Willis-Bund, in May, 1886, remarked, " There is no river in England and Wales where each rod fisher- man on the present return catches a yearly average of ten salmon." Also it had been observed by Mr. Eden, Fortnightly Beview, Nov. 1st, 1881, that taking nine rivers in 1880, those who had bred the fish took 1237, those who netted them 52,563. In the Severn, rods captured 15 fish and nets 16,000, including the estuary. It has been questioned whether the amount of salmon in our rivers is really much less than was formerly the case. It can be shown that they have been exterminated from the Stonr, the Itchen, the Medway, the Avon, and the Thamesf in England. In Scotland, the Fifeshire Leven no longer contains salmon, in the Tay district the Almond, Ericht and Dighty are ruined from pollutions, and many other rivers are greatly injured. Mr. Blake, in 1874, writing of his Irish district, extending from Wicklow Head to Rossan Point, stated that due to pollutions nearly every river in the County Down had been destroyed as a salmon prodncer. While stopping pollutions has been found so difi&cult and expensive, that the polluters appear to have it all their own way. Although many authors have of late years held that the widely-spread belief that laws formerly existed prohibiting giving salmon to servants or apprentices more than three times a week was a popular fallacy, it seems more probable that it is the recent anthers themselves who are in error.f What the reasons may in preserving that river from 1860 to 1880, and some salmon came back to it, but tbe white trout never. It was full of brown trout, and, in the autumn, of the big lake trout ; but the salmon and white trout, that it used to be famous for before "the bad times" (1848 to 1854), never came back. The head waters of these rivers were quite changed in the draining works about that time, and some say this was the reason. This I would believe, but that elsewhere in Ireland there has been a similar failure on rivers where there have not been any drainage works. Taking away the eel- weirs I suspect must be detrimental to the salmon and white trout, as there are no greater destroyers diau the eels." * The returns of the number of boxes of British and Irish sahnon, averaging 112 lb. each, sent to Billingsgate Market, give the following results for the last ten years : — 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880. 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885. English and Welsh ... 1508 1608 1224 1898 2028 1890 2186 2271 1600 1897 Scotch 25,645 29,366 27,660 15,564 17,457 23,905 22,968 34,506 27,219 30,362 Irish 7064 6373 4273 5762 9669 10,633 4720 9033 5979 8375. t Captain Eiohard Franks, in his Northern Memoirs, edition 1821, p. 133, writing of Stirling in 1658, remarked that " burgomasters, as in many other parts of Scotland, are compelled to reinforce an ancient statute, that commands all masters and others not to force or compel any servant or an apprentice to feed upon salmon more than thrice a week." At Inverness a century later Burt tells us {Letters from the North of Scotland, 1754) salmon which sold at one peimy a pound "was by a late regulation of the magistrates raised to twopence a pound, which is thought by many to be an exorbitant price" (p. 121), "the meanest servants, who are not at board wages, wiU not make a meal upon salmon if they can get anything else to eat " (p. 129) — mutton and beef were then about one penny a pound. Sir Walter Scott (Old Mortality, 1816) stated, " At that period (1679), sahnon was caught in such plenty in the considerable rivers of Scotland that instead of being accounted a delicacy, it was generally applied to feed the servants who are said sometimes to have stipulated that they should not be requested to eat a food so luscious and surfeiting in its quality over five times a week " (cap. viii). In Notes and Queries for May, 1857, the foUowing quotation was given from Coursell's History of Gloucester: — " It was a standing condition of apprenticeship that the apprentice should not be obliged to eat salmon more than thrice a week, the object being to render him less liable to the leprosy, which after the crusades in the Middle Ages was a formidable disease, that was supposed to be brought on or aggravated by the eating of fish." In a History of Worcester (1808, p. 48), the existence of this proviso was asserted as a well-known fact. The late Thomas Bewick, the great wood engraver, in a letter dated April 26th, 1824, wrote as follows to Mr, Pease, banker, SALMON— AS FOOD TOR APPRENTICES. 113 have been, whether salted fish were referred to as has been supposed, or whether this prohibition was introduced after the Crusades, because badly salted fish predisposes to leprosy (as it most undoubtedly does), we have now but little evidence to fall back upon. It has also been advanced that this regulation may have been for the purpose of preventing masters giving their apprentices " kelts " as food, which are readily captured after spawning and might have been salted down. This seems very unlikely, for if kelts were prohibited by British Legislators from being used by the rebellious Irish for food so early as 1645,* it is at Newoastle-on-Tyne, "when a boy, from about the year 1760 to 1767, 1 was frequently sent by my parents to the fishermen at Eltringham Ford to purchase a salmon. I was always told not to pay twopence a pound, and I commonly paid only a penny, and sometimes three halfpence, before or perhaps about this time. I have been told that an article had been always inserted in every indenture of apprenticeship in Newcastle that the apprentices were not to be forced to eat salmon above twice a week, and the same bargain was made with common servants." I may here allude to the evidence of Mr. Little on this point, given to the Parliamentary Committee, in 1824 ; he remarked, " I have been told, from inquiring of people with respect to the fishings in the Severn, that the salmon were formerly very abundant all along the Bristol Channel — so much so that in the apprentices' indentures it was a clause that they should not be fed with salmon more than two days in the week " (p. 134). Murdo Mackenzie, 1860, in Salmon Fisheries of Scotland, p. 6, also remarked that " servants of farmers used to stipulate with their masters that they should not be obliged to eat salmon except on a certain number of days in the week." Inthe JJeport of the Salmon Commission, 1860, it was observed, "We heard also in every locality that we visited that it was in former times a condition commonly made in indentures of apprentice- ship that the apprentice should not be obliged to dine on salmon more than twice or three times a week. We endeavoured to obtain a sight of one of these instruments but without success, though we met with persons who stated they had seen them, and the universal prevalence of the tradition seems to justify belief in it " (p. vi). Mr. Partridge, j.p., when giving evidence before the Commissioners appointed to inquire into Salmon Fisheries in 1860, observed " that in all the indentures of apprenticeship of the period there was a stipulation that the apprentices should not eat fish more than so many times a week. You will find that in the Hereford charter and in many other places" (p. 41). In M'Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce, 1869, we read that " within the memory of many now living, salted salmon formed a material article of household economy in all the farmhouses in the Vale of Tweed, inasmuch that indoor servants used to stipulate that they should not be obliged to take more than two weekly meals of salmon. What is true of Tweedside might also be so of any other salmon-producing district ; and I have just heard, on the authority of a lady lately residing near Nairn, that similar stipulations were made in her father's house in that neighbour- hood within her own recollection. Although such agreements were, in the case of domestic servants, probably never committed to writing, and perhaps rarely even in that of articles of apprenticeship, it seems not improbable that a custom apparently so common might be incident- ally referred to in the correspondence of that period. An examination of the rich collection at Dunrobin Castle has as yet, however, furnished no evidence, save indirectly, in oormeotion with the cheapness of the commodity in question, which seems to have been occasionally sold at less than a penny a pound." In Kidd's Companion to Southampton and the Isle of Wight, it is observed, "Formerly the salmon fishery was carried on here (Southampton) with much success, and a few of them are still occasionally taken. So abundant was the supply that farm servants and apprentices used to stipulate with their masters that they should not have salmon for dinner more than twice a week." A gentleman writing to me from France in 1884 observed, " The story of the apprentice not being compelled to eat salmon more than thrice a week I found current on both the Ehine and the Elbe, showing that the decrease of salmon is general." I have also been informed by a German lady that in and near the towns of Schlawe and Stolpe, in Eastern Pom^rania, situated not far from the sea and on the banks of the rivers Stolpe and Wipper, servants of Ijoth sexes at the annual hiring before 1850 invariably stipulated that they should not have meals of salmon more than three times a week. This fish was served to them fresh and very rarely cured. But by the year 1864 this stipulation, began to be no longer observed, as the price had risen to 5d per pound, flounders to four a penny, and herrings to from six to twelve for a 1J )7 22,000 : J? 3227 • J) J) 1-086 lb. 1877 )» )J 70,000 : )) 6286 • » jj •901 lb. 1878 )> )l 45,000 : )) 13,519 ■ >> }} •685 lb. 1879 5J J> none : )J 21,491 jj )) ■777 lb. 1880 JJ >> none : )> 19,642 • M 3J •960 lb. 1881 )J >) none : Jt 16,811 ' J> )> 1-050 lb. 1882 » 9) 50,000 :t JJ 9415 J> )J 1-011 lb. 1883 79 7f none JJ 14,227 )> J) •913 lb. 1884 J} )) none : )} 15,940 if )) -874 lb. 1885 JJ J> 200,000: n 16,775: )' JJ -873 lb. 1886 J> )) 240,000: it 12,157: >» >J •956 lb. Mr. Francis (Field, October 1st, 1881) ot served that lie was shown sm ponds at Sir James Maitland's at Howietoun, proving most conclusively that : — * Although I am unable to satisfy myself of the existence of rays in the adipose fin of young trout, Btm they have been asserted to be present. Mr. Gorelwer observed, in the Transactions of the East Kent Natwral History Society, that this fin is " small and rudimentary, not unlike a fatty layer in a thin skin-film, it is quite destitute of fat, and is kept extended by a thickly crowded set of parallel and very delicate rays, extending from the back of the fish upwards to the free margin of the fin, and often projecting a little beyond it, as one may witness by the help of an achromatic object glass of half an inch focal length. These rays are indeed composed of a peculiar glassy and homogeneous matter, like the intercellular part of true cartilage, quite structureless, and devoid of cells ; nor have these rays any muscular provision for their motion which we know to belong to true fins, neither have the rays of the adipose fin any resemblance in structure to the bony rays of other fins." t It was pointed out that it takes two seasons for the fry to attain to a useful" size, a conclusion which agrees with the figures, also that with the increased takes at first there is a diminution in the weight of the individual fish. J Also in 1882, 3000 two-year-old fish from Howietoun were placed in the loch. Knox found that Lochleven trout were filled with entomostraca in the month of January, but that during the remainder of the year they lived on Buccinum : at Howietoun they thrive on clams, or horseflesh. 230 SALMONID^ OP BRITAIN. " A small pond, 70 yards by 30, and in it you can maintain 1400 trout, averag- ing 4 lb. each, in tbe beigbt of condition, and in beautiful order, and fit for the table. Is it not clear from this that any ordinary lake in a nobleman or gentle- man's grounds can be made to carry any number of fish you require for either sport or table, provided they are properly and duly fed ? It is, as I hare always maintained, wholly and solely a question of feeding, and what so easy as to feed a trout ! he will eat nearly everything from bread to cockroaches, and even clover heads do not come amiss to him ... he picked half a dozen heads of red clover from the grass, and then threw them on the water, and the big fellows came at them like tigers, and even when you pulled the heads to pieces, and scattered the petals on the other ponds, the small fish would take them just as greedily." Diseases. — These fishes are affected with disease similarly to the salmon and the trout, while bay-salt has been used with success at Howietoun in order to arrest a fungus which has from time to time appeared in the ponds.* As food. — The Lochleven trout is generally very highly esteemed, not only for the red colour of its flesh, but because it possesses a peculiar delicacy of flavour, most probably the res alt of the food upon which it lives, for, remove it to another locality, and the flesh will often become white. Whether the flavour of these fishes now found in the loch has or has not deteriorated since its partial draining, as asserted by some and contradicted by others, must ever remain unsolved, because the manner in which the fish were cooked, the amount of hunger in the partakers of this food, and many other circumstances would have also to be taken into account, while deciding such a question from recollection would be a rather doubtful proceeding. There is a legend that in olden times these fish never took a fiy ; and an anonymous vmter in 1886, commenting upon the bad luck which had attended an angling competition, observed that fly-fishing on the Loch Leven had been in existence for about tvyenty-five years, but previous to that time these fish showed no disposition for winged prey. Granting the general accuracy of this statement, such would seem to partially confirm the opinion of Pamell and some others, that the local food has diminished in amount, therefore these fish will now take the fly. Pamell held that at Lochleven the flesh of this form of trout is of a dark red, but in the common loch or burn trout pinkish or often white. But this cannot be held as distinctive of species, for in the same day in Sutherlandshire, at Loch Assynt, some trout captured showed all variations in the colour of their flesh, from white to red, but were all equally well tasted. And Parnell observed that " James Stuart Monteith, Esq., of Olosebum, caught a number of small river trout, and transferred them to a lake (Loch Ettrick), where they grew rapidly ; their flesh, which previously exhibited a white chalky appearance, became in a short time of a deep red, while their external appearance remained the same from the time they were first put in " (p. 370) .f Habitat. — Loch Leven in Eifeshire, and other lochs in the south of Scotland and the north of England ; while Parnell recorded having met with this form so far north as Sutherlandshire. As to the size this fish attains, six-year-old examples, some weighing as much as 7 lb., were found at the Howietoun ponds in 1882, since then they have been captured up to 10 lb. in weight. In Loch Leven on April 27th, 1810, one 10 lb. weight was netted ; while in the New Statistical Account of Scotland mention was made of two examples captured previous to that date, one being nearly 9 lb., the other almost 18 lb. * I was informed that crows at Howietoun, after having eaten diseased fish, moulted and became most miserable objects, and three or four were thought to have become leprous. t Mr. Ffennell, writing of the Loohlevens at Mr. Andrews' (Times, Oct. 14th, 1886), observed, " I certainly think that those I took from the roadside pond in Surrey were the very best I had ever placed before me." Elsewhere these fish have been used for stocking pieces of water, but with varying success. Thus Knox, Lone Glens of Scotland, 1854, remarked of those intro- duced into the artificial Lake of Prestmarman, under circumstances highly disadvantageous they throve tolerably well (p. 35). They have also been transferred from Loch Leven to the county of Benfrew. 231 CHAR. When treating of the group Salmones, or forms among the genus Salmo, wherein teeth are found present at some period of their lives on the body as well as on the head of the vomer, I gave (pp. 10 to 11) a synopsis of the views held by British Naturalists respecting what they each deemed to be species or else referred to varieties. I propose taking the same course with the chars, a sub- genus of Salmo, wherein the vomerine teeth are restricted to the head of that bone (see fig. 3, p. 10). Although char do not differ so much in colour among themselves as do our trout, partly owing to their not frequenting salt water, still, at various ages, their forms are so diversified, and sexual distinctions so considerable, as td have deceived many ichthyologists who have studied these fishes more in museums than in their natural haunts. Fish culture has, however, proved of great service in eradicating from systematic zoology a large number of species, which must, however, unfortunately continue for years encumbering the pages of ichthyo logical literature.* * Willoughby (1686) placed under one head Unibla minor, Gesner the JReutele of South Germany, the Torgoch of Wales and Westmoreland, and tlie red char of Windermere, table no. 7. He also alluded to the gelt or gilt char of Westmoreland, which he referred to Garpio laciis Benaci of Eondeletius ; he likewise figured it, table no. 5. Eay (1713) held the same views as Willoughby. Pennant (1776) figured the char, and asserted his opinion that the case char, the gelt or silver char, i.e., a barren fish or one which has not spawned the preceding season, and on that account is reckoned to be in the greatest perfection, the red char, and those of Loch Inch in Scotland, were probably all one species. He observed that the variety case char spawned about Michaelmas, while the gilt char did so from the beginning of January to the end of March. He also alluded to the Welsh char. Donovan (1804) gave a figure of what he considered the gilt char of Pennant, Salmo alpinns, Linn. ; also a plate of Salmo salvelinus, Bloch, the torgoch of the Welsh, then said to be confined to the waters of Llyn Quellyn, one of the Alpine lakes situated in a deep valley on the west side of Snowdon. He considered that it differed from the chars of Windermere. Turtou (1807) agreed with Donovan, as did also Fleming (1828). Jenyns (1835) held identical views, but termed the Alpine char of Donovan S. umbla. Yarrell (1836) held the same opinions as Jenyns, but in his second edition (1841) as well as in his third (1859), all our British forms were held to be varieties of one species. Agassiz (1834) believed that aU our British forms were identical with the Ombre chevalier of the Lake of Geneva, observing that naturahsts "have especially attached themselves to the form of the head and the arrangement of the colours : but these two particulars are much too variable to supply precise characters ; as to the variations in colour we may say they are infinite" (Brit. Assoc. Report, 1834, p. 619). Richardson (1835) placed (1) S. umhla as synonymous with S. alpinus and S. salvelinus of Linnseus, and also with the species found in the Lake of Geneva, but he desired his readers to remember that the history of the char, whether single or distinctive, had not up to that time been clearly made out. In Windermere he continued that the case char ascended rivers, spavming about Michaelmas, while the red char deposited its ova along the shores of the lake, and not until the end of December or the beginning of the year. Parnell (1838) classed our northern char as S. umbla, Linnseus. Thompson (1840), and subsequently in 1851, held that all the forms of British and Irish char were varieties of one species, the S. umbla, Liimteus. White (1851) placed all the British examples in his catalogue of the fish in the National Museum as pertaining to 8. umhla. Dr. J. Davy (1857) said of the char, " so various are they, indeed, that in no two lakes do they perfectly agree, either in their average size, form and colouring, or even in their habits. Compare the char of Windermere and Hawes Water : were it not for their scales and other distinctive features, there would be little hesitation in saying that they were different species, the char of Hawes Water is so much smaller and thinner and differently spotted : the one taking the artificial 232 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 8. fontinalis, or the American char, has likewise been added to the British fish fauna, having been introduced and being now extensively distributed throughout the country, but with varying success, as will be alluded to. Up to 1866 Pennant, Agassiz, Yarrell, and White only admitted one form of char as British, while Donovan, Turton, Fleming, and Jenyns believed in two. Giinther increased them to six, subsequently 8. struanensis was added, and the American char widely propagated. Widegren (1864) asserted that in Scandinavia there existed two races of char, the larger being found in Lapland, Lake Wetter, and other lakes; while the smaller was present in pieces of water of less size, as those of Jemtland, Wermland, Smaland and Norway.* These two races he held to be simply modifications of one species, 8almo alpmus, the seebling of South Germany, of which 8. vmibla is a synonym. Holding these opinions, which were identical with those of Agassiz and others, he entered his protest against the validity of Dr. Giinther's new species, which he deemed as merely so many additions to the synonymy of 8. alpinm. Collett, Norges Fishe (1875), considered all the char pertained to one form, so also did Malm, while Moreau, in his Fishes of France (1881), arrived at the conclusion that all the chars of that country were a single form, 8. uvibla, which he considered identical with 8. salvelinus. In the Zoological Record of 1864, Dr. Giinther disputed the possibility of the size of the teeth having any bearing on the food these fish consume, maintaining that such may even be a reason towards instituting a species. However, in the artificial rearing of Salmonoids it has been found that some young do take on cannibal propensities, and are furnished with larger teeth than their neighbours. Referring to the size of the eggs, I have already shown (pp. 24, 25, 228) that such may depend on the age of the fish, and other circumstances. There appears to have been three different main reasons for dividing the British chars into several species, their colour, the number of their vertebrae, and also of their csecal appendages. The colours in the British char do not vary to so great an extent as in the trout, owing to their residing in deeper waters and usually merely ascending towards the surface at night-time to feed, while other changes in tint are consequent upon the breeding season. In the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, observed Jenyns, this fish in its ordinary state is the case char of Pennant; when exhibiting the bright crimson belly which it assumes before spawning, it is called the red char ; when out of season, the spawn having been shed, it is distinguished by the name of the gilt char. Thompson remarked that he had examined in a fresh state char from Windermere, from Loch Grannock (Scotland), and Lough Melvin (Ireland), and preserved in spirits or dry from nine other lakes in Scotland or Ireland. Examinations of these had led him to believe that there existed but one species : which, however, like the Salmo fario is subject to extraordinary variations. In one lake he observed that the male fish can at a glance be distinguished from the female either by colour or by the many characters which are comprised under "form." In another, so similar are the sexes in every external character, that without the aid of dissec- tion they cannot be determined. In size we find the species ordinarily attain twice the length and several times the weight in one lake that it does in another, although the area of their waters is of similar extent ; indeed, in some of the largest lakes this fish will be found not to attain near the size it does in some others which are but pools in comparison ; there are, however, various influences, as seen in trout, -which account satisfactorily for such differences. In the form of the fly of the angler freely, the other — that of Windermere — ^is seldom caught except by trolling with the minnow." Dr. Giinther (1866), as in the Salmonee so in the Salvelini, largely augmented the number of what he considered British species, although he rejected S. umbla and S. salvelinus as British forms. He gave (1) S. alpinus, vertebra 59-62, cscal appendages 36-42 ; (2) S. Ullinemis, vert. 62, osec. pyl. 44-52 ; (3) S. Willoughbii, vert. 56-62, caic. pyl. 32-44 ; (4) 5. perisii, vert. 61, ctBC. pyl. 36 ; (5) 5. grayi, vert. 60, oseo. pyl. 37 ; (6) S. colii, vert. 68, oceo. pyl. 42. Sir J. Gibson-Maitland (1881) added S. struanensis, osecal pyl. 28. * For contrary views, as observed in Ireland, see Thompson's remarks. CHAR— GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON, 233 body again we find ttis species, wlien in equally high condition, to be in one lake herring-like and in another approximating to the roundness of the eel. So mani- fold are the differences presented by the char from various localities, that it would be tedious and perhaps useless to point them out in every case. A corre- spondent in The Field (April 22, 1882), speaking of the white trout of Quebec, observed that the best authorities seemed to agree that the sea trout of the provinces is simply a Salmo fontinalis that had emigrated into salt water and changed its colour by that means. This leads us to ask whether we ought to agree with Agassiz, Thompson, and others, that the number of species of char in these islands is limited to one, but that subject to great variations in form, in colour, and other characters due to physical causes ? Or should we adopt the theories of those who see at least half-a-dozen species in the British Isles, and anticipate many more being discovered when the lochs of Scotland and the loughs of Ireland have been exhaustively explored ? The number of vertehrce in examples of the British char have been recorded as varying between 59 and G3, while the ccecal appendages differ greatly, but not so widely as in the fresh- water trout, having been observed varying between 28 and 52. As to the number of scales along the lateral-line, it is remarkable that in the American Sahno fontinalis they would seem to have decreased in numbers in some which have been introduced into the fresh waters of this country and bred artificially : this is a subject which requires being closely watched before a very decided opinion can be given. If we seek to investigate the history of these fishes from the earliest times, and inquire of geologists as to what account they are able to furnish, we are told that the Sahnonidce are a comparatively recently evolved family (see page 4 amie), while they are now very locally distributed in our lakes of Wales, the north of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Mr. Symonds, in the last edition of the Becords of the BocJcs, observed : " I have fished in and visited many of the lakes in Great Britain where the char, Ooregoni, and great lake trout (Salmo ferox) are known, but I never saw one in which they still exist that is not either a glacier lake, or rock basin, or that is not dammed or otherwise surrounded by glacial moraine matter. They are also inhabitants of the lakes of Sweden and Norway, which everywhere bears traces of the glacial epoch and its close, and seem to me to be (like the Alpine plants that still linger among the mountains) , fishes of that colder period when the last of the glaciers still hung to the combes of the High- lands of Scotland and Wales." But other geologists have shown that they are not now restricted to lakes of glacial origin. Mr. Brooke, writing respecting a species of Irish char, observed that " Lough Eske (where it was captured) was the crater of an extinct volcano, as suggested by Dr. Wilde, of Dublin." Doubtless the char prefer the colder north to the more temperate portions of the globe ; and also moderately still waters. Among the fishes brought by the late Arctic expeditions were examples of char very similar, if not identical with British forms, thus seeming to show a near relationship one with the other. While in Nordenskiold's Arctic voyages it was recorded that the young of 8. alpinus, three inches long, were captured on the eastern side of Widje Bay in June, 1861. Char are a more delicate and apparently shorter lived fish than trout, they require deeper and stiller pieces of water and a colder temperature : they have even been recorded as residing in lochs where the sun never reaches the surface of the water. They are readily destroyed by poisonous substances, while attempts to introduce them to fresh localities have not been so uniformly successful as with the trout. The very young, as up to twelve months, will thrive in boxes under cover where trout would dwarf, while they seem to be rather intolerant of heat, and the American form, at least, is of a roving disposition. Many and various reasons have been advanced by different persons for and against the enactment of laws for the protection of fish, especially char. The following remarks of the Salmon Commissioners of 1860 are of interest : — " This delicate fish is also decreasing in number and the cause is obvious. They are fished for and taken only late in the season and during their spawning time. The excuse for this is that they then only come to the shallow parts of the lake and 234 SALMONID^ OF BRITAHST. cannot be taken at other times from the depth of water they frequent. This, however, is not really the case. In October they are taken at a depth of 40 yards or more, and the best fish are got then. The fact is, that ia summer when they are in full season, it is more profitable for the boatmen to attend upon tourists and anglers, and the difficulty of deep-water fishing is made the excuse for taking thera after the spawning season has begun. This fish is in great demand at all the hotels near the lakes ; but if some check be not put upon their destruction at improper seasons they are likely to disappear altogether " (Report, p. v). While Mr. Houghton in his British Fresh-water Fishes, considered that the extension of the Salmon Act to char was a great mistake. " The only time — and that time is of short duration — when char can be taken in any numbers is in October and November, when they leave their deep-water haunts for the shallower parts of the lakes. The destructive agency of man, limited as it was to one or two months' duration, could have but little eifect in causing a diminution of the species in the extensive depths of our great lakes, which, for five-sixths of the year, provide safe and unassailable harbours." On the other hand it has been asserted that the char of Lough Neagh, in Ireland, have been exterminated by man within the last forty years, showing his power, when unchecked by legislative enactments, of effectually accomplishing such a destruction. In Land and Water for December 27th, 1879, is an interesting article upon the result following the preservation of the Llanberris char. Two large fresh-water lakes exist, joined together by a small river. In November the char pass up this stream to the lower portion of the upper lake to spawn, having accomplished which they return to the lower lake. The proprietors, acting on the principle enunciated above, used to net them at the spawning period ; but the Salmon Act of 1873 prohibited the capture of these fish between October 1 and February 1, so the killing of these spawning char has been stopped. Prior to 1874 they were only to be seen here and there in shoals of a score or so, whereas now they may be observed in hundreds, averaging about nine fish to 2 lb. weight. In September, 1879, an angler, with a worm bait, captured in one evening 23 lb. weight of char,* and as * H. H., writing in Land and Water, observed of these Llanberis lakes, that " the fact is, the lower lake, in which these interesting fish make their home, is so deep, and the bottom so rooky and uneven, that it is impossible to net them, hence the reason for netting them when spawning, for in those days there was no close time for char, but they could be taken either in or out of season. The Act of 1873 has changed all this, and appointed a close time for char as well as trout ; therefore, it is Ulegal to take char or trout between October 1 and February 1, which is just a month too soon to be able to net char in this particular lake. But since the Act of 1873 came into force (five years) the present proprietor of those lakes, like a thorough sportsman, has not attempted to net char during close time (it is private property), although, as I said before, it is the only time they can be netted. The consequence is that char are now to be seen in Llanberis Lake in shoals. Prior to 1874 they were only to be seen here and there in shoals of a score or so, whereas they are now to be seen in hundreds. What is the cause of this great increase of char ? There is orJy one answer, viz., the preservation of the fish. Now for the mode of angling- for those fish at Llanberis. At the commencement of last September a gentleman from Llanberis went one evening with his rod to the upper end of the lower lake, baited his hooks with worms, expecting to get a large trout ; so, after testing his casting-line and reel, he made a cast, and in a few minutes there was a tug, then a puU, and the fish was landed, but only weighed a quarter of a pound. Fresh bait, another cast, but this time a different tug, so he muttered to himself, ' A big fellow at last ! ' However, when landed, there were two fish, but instead of the nice yellow trout, he beheld two red fish. He could not understand it, but at last exclaimed, ' Char I ' and was over- joyed at his new discovery — viz., the worm bait. He went on fishing, and landed during the evening 23 lb. of char, returned to Llanberis, and found a ready sale at one shilling per lb. The news spread, and the next morning there were several anglers at work, and all had good sport. This continued until close time, and some days hundreds of quarrymen miglit be seen fishing, some in boats, others from the shore, some of them taking as much as 45 lb. in the day; a few were also taken with the fly ; but I am sorry to say another mode of fishing has been practised — viz., ' snatching.' It appears at times those fish are to be seen in shoals on the surface of the lake, and as they will not then take a bait, bare hooks are thrown amongst them and suddenly snatched, often getting two or three fish at a cast. It is a great pity this practice is not put a stop to. The char in this lake are not large ; some a quarter of a pound, but the average is nine fish to the two pounds." B. H. B. remarked in The Field, January 15th, 1887, that " with regard to the Windermere char, one wonders that it has survived and multiplied under the surroundings of destruction which CHAR— MODES AND TIMES OF CAPTURE. 235 soon as the news got abroad many others took to angling for these fish, and all had good sport. This continued until close-time, and some days hundreds of quarrymen might be seen fishing, some in boats, others from the shore, while as much as 45 lb. a day has fallen to the share of one rod, a bait having been almost invariably used, although a few were taken with a fly. A correspondent of The Field, October 28th, 1882, remarked upon night fishing for char with well-scoured brandlings and line tackle in North Wales. All is done by feel, and, when a vigorous tug occurs at your line, the angler has to strike ; at the approach of day the char begin to bite savagely, as dawn com- mences the biting ceases, and the fish disappear as if by magic. Respecting the Windermere fishing for 1881 it was remarked in Land and Water, November 26th, 1881, that " the char fishing was, as usual, very profitable." There can be no better argument in favour of a close season and protection than the great increase in the value of the char fisheries since such was applied and protection afibrded to these fish. The fishing is free to all, and a great number of the natives on the shores of the lake gain a good livelihood by supplying the strangers and hotels with the fish. The mode in which it is generally carried on by the fishermen as described in The Field, is with what is termed a plumb-line. Fishing with the plumb-line usually commences about the beginning of March, and at that time the fish are got abont thirty yards from the surface and in the deepest parts of the lake. As the weather gets warmer they gradually approach the top, and although they are frequently to be seen on a warm day leaping at the flies on the water, yet it is an almost unheard-of thing on Windermere to cast for them with a rod. The plumb-line for char is made of strong cord, and varies in length according to the number of baits which are to be put on it ; but it is usually between forty and fifty yards long, and this is sufficient to carry five baits. At the end of the line is a lead sinker, weighing about 1^ lb., having a small wing fixed in it, which assists in preventing it from revolving, although it is fixed to the main line with a strong swivel. To this line is attached at intervals of six or seven yards, short lines, or, as they are called by the fishermen, droppers, varying in length from six to ten yards, the shortest being that nearest the bottom of the line. What is generally used at Windermere, is a " phantom " made by the fishermen themselves, from sheets of metal coppered on one side and silvered or coloured on the other, which can be procured from any coppersmith or encompassed it for so long. Little was known of its habits, and because some were ill-conditioned and lean and others well fed and plump, it was long argued that two varieties inhabited the lake — the case char and the gilt char ; some even argued there was a third variety-^he silver char. We had, at the end of November, 1862, Dr. Giiuther writing for specimens of the Windermere char, ' as they are just now, and for a short period only, in season.' They were then on the spawning beds ! and it was when thus engaged that such destruction was played upon them. There was no Act of Parliament for their protection ; they were kUled all the year round, and especially in the late autumn and winter months, when they came on to the shallows. Still gregarious, they spawned together in infinite numbers on the gravel beds near the shore or in the river Brathay. From the beginning of November to the middle or end of January they were netted, ' hooked foul,' and caught with a bait of salmon roe or worm. One net could sweep up a whole school, and three hooks, tied triangle fashion and skilfully manipulated, might account for half a hundred fish during a day. These were the halcyon days for potted char. The poor sickly fish were so soft and flabby that they could not be eaten cooked otherwise. Some people now cry out because they cannot obtain this dainty as freely as heretofore, and say that preservation has not made char more plentiful. Generations of destruction cannot be remedied all at once ; but such people should be reminded that even in 1860 char, when in season during spring and summer, realized a shilling each all round at Bowness, irrespective of their size. They do not fetch more than that price now. The spawning habits of the char have been said to be peculiar ; but we do not con- sider them very much more odd than those of either Salmo salar or Salmo fario. Some spawn on the shallows of Windermere, whilst others run up the Brathay for a similar object; but neither in Eothay nor Troutbeck — both, to all appearance, likely breeding places — do they ever form their redds. The Ennerdale char spawn both in the lake and in the Liza, a river that is one of its main feeders. Most of the char in the Scotch lochs spawn therein, though there are cases where they prefer a stream for that purpose, those of Loch Euniok to wit ; and in Wales, too, they usually seek the shallows of the lakes when the period for depositing their ova and milt approaches. The spawning season commences in November, and continues more or less, according to the season, into February, seldom later ; and it has been noticed that those char which enter the tributary streams are more forward in their operations than the fish that remain in the lakes." 236 SALMONID^ OF BRITAHST. ironmonger. TLe fishermen cut them out with a pair of strong scissors, shaping them to their taste. A small treble hook is pnt on the phantom, and two yards of strong gut, having at least two swivels, and the remainder of the short line, or " dropper," may be of fine cord. Two lines such as are here described are used in fishing char, one on each side of the boat. Having reached the fishing ground, the boat must be rowed slowly, and the sinker is dropped over the side, and the line allowed to sink until the dropper next to it is reached, when the main line is temporarily fixed, until the " dropper" and phantom is put out ; the main line is then loosened and sunk further, until the next " dropper " is reached and put out, and so on until the whole line is out. This having been done, the end of the main line is attached to the top of a strong rod (a young sapling does very well), about fourteen or sixteen feet long, supple at the top, but not too much so, and then the rod is made to rest over the stem of the boat at the side upon which the line has been put out, and the butt end securely fixed in the bottom of the boat. When this has been done the second line may be put out at the side of the boat, in the same way as the first line, and secured with a rod. Care must be taken to have the boat always moving, other- wise the lines will foul. It would appear that the preservation of char leads to a substantial increase in their numbers, and augmentation in the food-producing property of the lake where such is carried out. While these fishes are not so very indifferent to bait and files as some persons would lead us to believe, the angler with a bait appears in most waters to have more chance of sport than the fly-fisher, thus although the char of Windermere usually will not rise to the fly, the Welsh torgoch takes it freely. Mr. Harvie-Brown observed respecting a chain of lochs in Scotland containing char, that in one small, deep pool of crystal-clear water they are of a larger size than those inhabiting the lochs lower in the valley. In a perfectly dead calm they rise, sometimes freely to a certain fly, but cease whenever a ripple disturbs the surface. As many as six dozen have been taken by one rod in a single day. One can see several feet down into this basin of pure water in a calm, and perceive the fish floating upwards and sucking in the fly, as they seldom dash at it like a trout. Char, says Mr. Jackson, except for a few weeks in the year when they appear to live on flies, prey on all small fish and captui'e them, even larger than would be supposed possible by any one who had not taken (as I have) a perch nearly two inches long out of a char about nine inches in length. R. H. B. remarked of the char in The Field, January 15th, 1887, that " those of other waters in the North of England, excepting, perhaps, Buttermere and Ennerdale, are smaller in size, and, in place of averaging about three to the pound, vary in weight from two ounces each to about four ounces. This smaller size is particularly striking with regard to the char of Goats Water and Hawes Water. Numerous enough in the latter, specimens of four ounces each are rare, and the usual average is of from two ounces to three ounces. In the other sheet of water they are smaller still, and fairly plentiful ; some eight to the pound being the ordinary size. From this it may be safely inferred that, at some time or other, these smaller waters have been artificially supplied with char from the larger ones, which thus, as it were, become acclimatized. They can scarcely be said to have flourished, for, failing to find the minute larvae upon which the char waxes fat, they have degenerated into little lean creatures, and are to the ordinary char, just what the bum trout is to the handsome brown fellow from the richest streams. Another interesting circumstance in the life history of these small ill-fed char, is that they rise to the artificial fly both in Goats Water and Hawes Water, far more readily than elsewhere ; indeed, they seldom, in late years at least, are taken from the other English lakes by such means. Considerable numbers may be caught on almost any favourable day during the season with rod and line in either Hawes Water or Goats Water, thus a tendency to feed on the surface is shown, and similar remarks apply to the char of Loch Dochart in Scotland." 237 CHAR. 1. British Char, Plate IX, fig. 1 and 2. Umhla minor, Gesner, p. 1201 ; Willoughby, p. 196, t. N. 7 ; Ray, p. 65. Salmo Lemani lacus sen Umhla, Rondel, ii, p. 160 ; Willoughby, p. 197, t. N". 5 ; Ray, p. 66 {Gilt charre). Gharr, Pennant; Brit. Zool. (Ed. 1776), iii, 305, pi. Ix and (Ed. 1812) iii, p. 407, pi. Ixi ; Low, Fauna Oread, p. 234. Salmo alpinus, Linn. Faun. Sueo. p. 117, no. 310, Syst. Nat. i, p. 510 ; Gmel. Linn. p. 1370 ; Bonn. Enc. Ich. p. 162, pl. Ixvii, f. 272 ; Nilss. Skand. Faun. Fisk. p. 426 ; Jardine, Brit. Ass. vol. iv, p. 614 ; Gunther, Proc. Zool. See. 1863, p. 8 and Catal. vi, p. 127 ; GoUett, Norges Fiske, p. 160 ; Day, Brit, and Irish Fish, ii, p. 112, pl. cxvii, f. 1. Salmo umhla, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 511 ; Bloch, t. ci ; Gmel. Linn. p. 1371; Bonn. Enc. Ich. p. 164 ; Jurine, Poiss. Lao Leman, pl. y ; Agassiz, Poiss. d'eau douce, pl. ix, x and xi ; Ouv. and Val. xxi, p. 233 ; Parnell, Mem. Wern. Soc. vii, p. 308 and Fish. Firth of Forth, p. 148; White, Catal. Brit. Fish. p. 78; Thompson, Nat. Hist. Ireland, iv, p. 160 ; Heckel and Kner, Siisswasserf. p. 285 ; Gunther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 39 and Catal. vi, p. 125 ; Moreau, Poiss. France, iii, p. 530, f. 207. Salmo salvelinus, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 511 ; Bloch, t. xcix; Gmel. Linn. p. 1370 ; Bonnaterre, Ency. Ich. p. 162, pl. Ixvii, f. 273; Guv. and Val. xxi, p. 246; Tarrell, Brit. Pish. (Ed. 3), i, p. 241 ; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 38, 1863, p. 7 and Catal. vi, p. 126 ; Blanchard, Poiss. France, p. 444, f. 115. Alpine cJiarr, Couch, Fish. Brit. Isles, iv, p. 272, pl. ccxxvi. Salvelinus alpinus, Malm, Bohuslaus Fauna, p. 540.* Variety. Toeqoch oe Welsh CHAK.f Torgoch, Willoughby, p. 196. Umhla minor, Gesner ; Farrington, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 1755, p. 210. Torgoch, Pennant, Brit. Zool. 1. c. ; Bed Charre or Torgoch,'Ra,j, 1. c. Salmo salvelinus, Donovan, Brit. Fish, v, pl. cxii ; Turton, p. 104; Jenyns, Brit. Yert. p. 428 ; Yarrell, Brit. Fish. (ed. 1), ii, p. 70, c. fig. (ed. 2), ii, p. 121. Salmo umhla, Jenyns, p. 427. Salmo camhrieus, Giiuther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 49, pl. vi (not Donovan). Salma perisii, Gunther, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1865, xv, p. 75, and Catal. vi, p. 133 ; Houghton, British Fresh-water Fishes, p. 141, c. fig. ; Day, Brit, and Irish Fish, ii, p. 112, pl. cxix, f. 2. Torgoch, Couch, Fish. Brit. Isles, iv, p. 264, pl. ccxxiii. Variety. Windeemeee Chae.J Plate IX, fig. 2 and 3, Gharr of Windermere, Willough. 1. c. ; Case charr, Pennant, 1. c. and Ray, 1. c. Salmo alpinus, Donovan, Brit. Fish. pl. Ixi ; Turton, Brit. Fauna, p. 104 ; Fleming, Brit. An. p. 180. * While this work was going through the press I received a copy of Dr. P. A. Smith's mag- nificent monograph on Salmonidse {Till hongl. Vet. Akad. Inlemnad den Jan. 14th, 1886), in which the text, the elaborate tables of measurements, and the beautiful plates are worthy of great praise. t D. 12-13 (V) I 0, P. 12, V. 9, A. 11-12 ('f), C. 21, L. 1. 125-135, Vert. 61, C^c. pyl. 36. This form has moderately-sized teeth, pectoral fin extending more than half way to the base of the ventral. It is said to have 170 rows of scales descending to the lateral-line, and to be a smaller form than the ohar of Windermere. Numerous red spots on its sides, belly red in the adult : pectoral, ventral and anal fins with white upper and anterior edges. Name — Torgoch in Welsh signifies tor, " a belly," and goch, " red." It is said to emerge from the depth of the lakes seeking the shaUows for a short period in winter. It rises to a fly. t D. 12-13 (%#) I 0, P. 13-14, V. 9-10, A. 11-12 (-jV), C. 19, L. 1. 126, Vert. 59-62, Csec. pyl. 28-44. Teeth — of moderate strength, 4 in each premaxillary ; 20 in each maxillary. Fins — pectoral reaches more than half-way to the root of the ventral. Colours — sides with red dots: belly red : pectoral, ventral and anal with white margins. ScaUs — from 118 to 128 along the lateral-Hue, and a larger number (180) have been recorded in rows descending to it. In an example 7-2 inches long, from Windermere, there were 10 finger marks on the left side and 11 on the right. Vertebrte 60 -1- x, and 13 gUl-rakers on the outer branch of the lower branchial arch ; in the two males figured one had 33, the other 42 cscal appendages. 238 SALMONID^ OP BRITAIN. Salmo umbla, Jenyns, Brit. Vert. p. 427 ; Thompson, Ann. and Mag. 1840, vi, p. 430. Salmo Willughhii, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 46, pi. y, 1863, p. 11, and Catal. vi, p. 131 ; Day, Brit, and Irish Fish, ii, p. 113, pi. cxvii, f. 2. Salmo struanensis, Gibson-Maitland, Field, Oct. 8th, 1881, p. 516. Willoughhy' s cJiarr, Conch, Fish. Brit. Isles, iv, p. 262, pi. ocxxii. Variety. Loch Killik Chae.* Salmo Mllinensis, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 699, pi. xl, and Catal. vi, p. 130 ; Honghton, Brit. Fresh-water Fish. p. 145, c. fig. ; Day, Brit, and Irish Fish, ii, p. 113, pi. cxviii, f. 1. ? Salmo arcturus, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 294, pi. xxxiii. Variety. Geats CflAE.f Salmo alpinus, Dnbonrdien, Hist. Co. Antrim, i, p. 119 ; Thompson, Ann. Mag, Nat. Hist. 1840, vi, p. 448. Salmo umbla, Thompson, 1. c. p. 439 (young) and Nat. Hist. Ireland, iv, p. 160. Salmo Orayi, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 51, pi. vii, and 1863, p. 12, and Catal. Fish. Brit. Mnsenm, vi, p. 136 ; Houghton, Brit. Fresh-water Fishes, p. 139, c. fig. ; Day, Brit, and Irish Fish, ii, p. 114, pi. cxix, f . 1. Qray's charr, Couch, Fish. Brit. Isles, iv, p. 267, pi. ccxxiv. Variety. CoLES Chae.J Salmo Golii, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, p. 12, pi. ii, and Catal. Fish. Brit. Mus. vi, p. 138; Houghton, British Fresh- water Fishes, p. 138, c. fig. ; Day, Brit, and Irish Fish, ii, p. 114, pi. cxviii, f. 2. Coles Charr, Couch, Fish. Brit. Isles, iv, p. 269, pi. ccxxv. B. x-xi, D. 12-14 (J^) I 0, P. 12-14, V. 9-10, A. 11-13 (-JtV) C. 19-21, L. 1. 125-145, L. tr. 25-31/30-40, Caec. pyl. 28-62, Vert. 59-63. ■ * D. U (s^) I 0, P. 13, V. 9, A. 13 (t^), C. 19, L. 1. 135, Vert. 62, Ccec. pyl. 44-52. Length of head 4J, of caudal fin 6i, height of | body 4J in the total length. Eyes — diameter about 1/6 of the length of the head, 2 diameters from the end of the snout, and also apart. Form of preoperole varies in different specimens ; suboperole mostly short and high. MaxiUa reaches to behind the orbit. Teeth — small. Fins — dorsal, pectoral, and ventral well developed. Scales — Dr. Giinther counts 180 rows descending on to the lateral-line ; in an example examined there were 185 pierced scales along the lateral-Kne. Colours — dart, sides with fevf light spots. In some the anterior edges of the lower fins are Hghtly coloured. S. arcturus, Giinther, the most northern Salmonoid recorded N. lat. 80° 28' by 34' is differentiated from S. Mllinensis owing to its being a little more slender 1 Malmgren (^fv. Sven. Vet. Akad. Pork. 1865, p. 534) remarked upon an example of Salmo alpinus, -76 mUlim long, found in a river in Northern Spitzbergen. t D. 18-14 {i\%) I 0, P. 18-14, V. 9, A. 12 (f), C. 21, L. 1. 125-140, L. tr. 31/80, Cac. pyl. 37, Vert. 60. Lower jaw feeble. Teeth — small, 4 on each premaxiUary and about 16 on each maxillary. Fins — dorsal commences slightly nearer the snout than in the other forms, the fin being in the centre of the length of the back. Pectoral terminates at no great distance from the ventral : fins well developed. — Scales — 19 rows from the hind edge of the adipose dorsal fin downwards and forwards to the lateral-line ; 25 rows beween the lateral-line and the base of the ventral fin : 125 to 140 rows along the lateral-line. Colours — sides with orange dots : fins with or without a light edge. Thompson observed of the char of Lough Melvin, that "the males are generally more grace- fully formed than the females, and most of them are rather brighter in colour, but there is no external character so strikingly different as to lead to a certain knowledge of the sex: some of the largest fiined are females." They are termed "fresh-water herrings " in Lough Melvin. When cooked the flesh is pale and its taste insipid. As to their breeding, Mr. Houghton received some from Lough Melvin in November, the males hadnot parted with their milt, nor the females with their ova. t D. 18-14 (^1^) I 0, P. 13, V. 9, A. 12 (f ), 0. 19, L. 1. 125-128, L. tr. 31/30. Cffic. pyl. 42, Vert. 63. Teeth — ^very small, 4 to 6 in each premaxillary, 14 to 17 in each maxiUary. Fins — ^pectoral not reaching nearly to the ventral. Ventral and anal fins with a narrow white anterior edge. Scales — 125 rows along the lateral-line, and 160 descending to it : 18 rows between the hind edge of the adipose dorsal fin and the lateral-line : and 25 from the lateral-line to the base of the ventral fin. The form of S. Oolii appears to be principally distinguished from S. Grayii by the compara- tive shortness of its pectoral fins. It has been recorded from Lough Bske (Eskor Yesh, "a fish"), the crater of an extinct volcano, and L. Dan. CHAR— INDIGENOUS BRITISH SPECIES. 239 Length of head 4f to 5^, of caudal fin 6 to 6f, height of body 4| to 5j in the total length. Eyes — size depends much on age, sex, and nature of locality from whence procured: usually situated just in front of the middle of the length of the head, from li to 2 diameters from the end of the snout and the same distance apart. In some the comparative height of the body is much greater than in others, and dependant on food, health, and the vicinity of the breeding season, the kelts becoming emaciated. The maxilla in some extends to beneath the last third of the orbit, in others to beyond the vertical from its hind margin, while it is likewise slightly more strongly developed in some than it is in others. The lower jaw in some varieties, as the torgoch of Wales, may be longer anteriorly than the upper jaw (see p. 220 ante). The opercular pieces are of as diverse shapes in the char as described in the trout, and frequently are dissimilar on the opposite sides of the head, while in old males there may be a concavity over the occiput. Teeth — present in the jaws and on the head of the vomer, but none along the body of that bone. Fins — dorsal usually commences about midway between the end of the snout and the base of the caudal fin, in some examples a little nearer the snout. The pectoral and other fins are of varying lengths in accordance with locality, sex, and other varying conditions. Scales — small, and a much larger number of rows descending from the back of the lateral-line, than there are of pierced rows along its whole extent. GcBcal appendages — these vary considerably, and in a.few examples have been found as follows : — in Loch Inch 38 (Thompson) ; L. Rannoch, 28 ; the Lakes, 28-44, Dr. Giinther detected from 36 to 52, and the smallest number in those from Windermere, 36. From the same locality I possess examples with 33-42, another with 28, and found the same number in a specimen received from Loch Rannoch as 8. struanensis. It is evident they are as inconstant as in the trout (see pp. 199, 216). Colours — these again vary, but as a general rule the belly, prior to spawning, becomes of a scarlet or claret colour, while there are usually some light-coloured orange or red or black spots on the body and head. The front edge of the dorsal, ventral and anal, as well as the upper edge of the pectoral, are often of a pure white or orange colour. The variation in tints and shades are not so great in char as in trout. In some, the ventral, anal, lower portion of the pectoral, and hind edge of the caudal partake of the scarlet colour of the abdomen. In three specimens captured for me in Loch Altnagallach, in Sutherlandshire, June 30th, 1886, the belly in all was tinged with yellowish-pink ; paired fins with a reddish inner edge ; spots on body tinged with red. Back, bluish -purple glossed with gold, which faded gradually into the belly ; eyes golden. One from Windermere had 11 par bands. Varieties in colour. — "By such alone," Dr. Giinther observed, "fresh specimens of Salmo salvelinus and 8. umhla, of 8. Qrayii and 8. Willoughhii, may be always distinguished,", and in his division of the British species into many, he divided it first in accordance with the development of the jaws and size of the teeth, which are inconstant characters. He then sub-divided it in respect to the length of the pectoral fins : but here it is evident that the question of sex, locality where hatched and reared, and many other local circumstances, should be taken into consideration. I examined eight specimens received from the lakes, and found as follows : — All were from 8f to 9 inches in length ; in two the pectoral extended just half the distance to the base of the ventral, and in the remainder If, 1,^-, Jiij l|.j 2iVi ^-iid 2-| in the interspace, clearly showing that this is not a character on which very great reliance should be placed.* The next subdivision insisted upon was whether the dorsal fin contained 13 or * Hamilton, History of British Fishes, ii, 1843, p. 143, observed that " this pretty and fine- flavoured fish ia liable to great variation, and this has rendered its synonymy and history somewhat confused. It was for a time supposed that the Welsh char was distinct from the char of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and the Scottish lakes, and they have actually been described as separate species by Mr. Jenyns. Mr. Yarrell, too, at one time favoured this view, but a more careful examination has led him to the opinion that all are referrible to one variable species. . . . The different states and varieties are known in this country by the names of Case Char, Gilt Char, Bed Char, Silver Char, &a." Mr. W. Kinsey Dover, in his recent Natural History of the Lake District, considered there were two distinct varieties of this fish, one the " silver char," the 240 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 14 rays. Sucli an enumeration, however, is evidently open to uncertainty, unless it is taken into consideration and recorded how many undivided and how many branched rays are present (see fig. 36, p. 163 ante). The first few which are undivided are minute, one or two may even be wanting. Thus in the 8 examples from the same locality already referred to, I found from. 3 to 4 undivided, and 9 to 10 divided rays in the dorsal fin, and similarly in the anal, 3 to 4 undivided and 8 to 9 divided rays. Moreau, in France, finds D. -^.^% A. -flf. This character, therefore, is not reliable. As to the comparative height of the body, that varies with sex, season, food, and condition, and cannot be otherwise than a very uncertain element in the discrimination of a species. Although the difference in the size of the scales has been held as one of the most constant and important characters in salmonoids, one cannot resist the conclusion that such a belief is founded on error. Possibly in no family of fishes are greater variations perceptible in the relative size and number of scales among individuals. In examining numerous examples of Salmo fontinalis reared in this country, and counting the pierced scales along the lateral-line, I have found specimens which have from 122 to 142 : but it is in the number of irregular rows which descend from the back to the lateral-line where the greatest diversity occurs, while it is here some naturalists count. Although in 8 of my British char the difference in the number of pierced scales along the lateral-line does not exceed 20, I find from 185 to 235 rows descending to the lateral-line, or a variation of 50 scales. Taking the whole of the reputed British species, the extreme variation recorded is 70 rows. If, therefore, among 8 examples of American char received from two localities I can observe a difference in number of at least 50 rows of scales descending from the back to the lateral-line, the extreme variation of 70 among specimens of char obtained throughout the extent of Great Britain and Ireland, appears hardly sufficient ground for instituting distinct specimens. Sir W. Jardine considered that " the northern, or Suther- land char," has more elongated scales than the "southern char," the scales of which he described as being more orbicular, but having obtained and examined some I do not find such to be the rule. " The char of Hawes Water," observed Dr. Davy, " which is known to feed a good deal on insects, is a small and slender fish in comparison with the char of Windermere, which feeds more at the bottom and has a less precarious supply, especially of SquillcB, which abound in the lake.* The one takes the artificial fly freely ; the other — that of Windermere — is rarely so tempted and seldom caught, except by trolling with the minnow. In short," he remarked, " so various are they that in no two lakes do they perfectly agree, either in their average size, form, colouring, or even in their habits." In examining 8 examples from the above locality I found the following variations : — D. -J^, A. flf, L. 1. 118-128, Caec. pyl. (in three examples) 28-42. The number of rows of scales descending to the lateral-line varied from 166 to 180. Names. — Oharre, cTiarr or char : torgooh, "red belly" (Wales). Gally-troul "red bellied trout" (Windermere, Lochleven, &c.), while it is also termed at the latter place gelly-trocJi trout (Lochleven Angler), which is said to signify a black leech which abounds in this loch and upon which it feeds. Bed-wame, Scotland. Tarr-dhearg and dearg-bhlian (Gaelic in the Highlands of Scotland). Murneen in Galway and the loughs of Mayo in Ireland (Wilde). L'ombre chevalier, French. In olden times the credulous were instructed that three sons of the Church introduced these fishes into Wales from Rome, and placed two in each of the lakes of Llanberris, Llynumba, and Trevennyn. While those in Windermere and other the " gilt char," the former keeping chiefly to the upper part of the lake above Bowness. Continuing, " Mr. Braithwaite, of Kendal, who has recently published a treatise on the Salmonidse of Westmoreland, has informed me that he believes in only one species existing in Windermere Lake" (p. 13). * Finding the stomach of the char figured in plate ix rather hard, I opened it, but only found two stones which measured as follows in inches, O-3x0-3x0-2 and 0-2x0-2x0-l, CHAR— BRITISH FORM. 241 Coniston, then termed Thurston Water, were similarly ascribed to the monks of Furness Abbey, who were said to have brought them from near the Alps. But as this legend attributed their introduction to only about two centuries since, we are met by a statement which was made three or four years ago of the discovery of a MS. bearing date A.d. 1535, wherein a certain Jacques Tallour was permitted " to catch and tol the fayre fish charr in "Wynandermer, and also hys Sonne Gerald," but we have no evidence of the genuineness of the document. However, Isaak Walton, in 1653, mentioned the existence of char in Winander Mere, and did not refer to it as being of any recent introduction. Sabits. — A gregarious and usually deep swimming fish, but in warm weather coming nearer to the surface ; they are mostly shy of taking a bait and feed largely at night-time. The common food of the trout has been found in their stomachs, while when in confinement they can be similarly fed. They appear to require very pure and mostly deep water for their residence, but are found in some Irish lakes which are not of great depth. They feed upon aquatic insects and fish, and appear to be most lively during the night-time. They have been observed to have disappeared from some lakes due to the entrance therein of poisonous matter, as from lead mines,* but in other localities where no such deleterious substances have obtained access, as Loch Leven, and some of the Irish loughs, where they have likewise disappeared, it has been sug- gested that such may partly be dependent upon the diminution or disappearance of such entomostraca as previously formed their natural food. When half or full grown they do not bear confinement well,t but may be kept for a short period in troughs through which a supply of water flows. Thompson, in 1835, observed that they were thus kept at Coniston Water at the hotel and sold at 10s a dozen. 0., in Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist, v, p. 317, observed of the Windermere fish that " about the beginning of April, when the warm weather comes in, they retire into the deep parts of the lake, where their principal food is the minnow, of which they are very fond," while they are captured with spinning bait. As food. — The fiesh of these fishes varies ; in some localities it is pink in colour, * It has been stated to descend to the sea, and it has been asserted that some were captured there or at the mouths of rivers on the Welsh coast after they had beeii driven out of Llanberris by poisoned waters. Further evidence on this point is required. Yarrell asserted that in the autumn of 1839 several char of some half pound weight each were placed in Lily Mere, a secluded sheet of water not far from Sedburgh in Yorkshire, and the property of the Uptons, of Ingmire Hall. It was further said that some twelve months later two of these fish, weighing 2 lb. each, were caught with the fly, admirably fed and well shaped, in the pink of condition. They were served at the Queen Dowager's table at the Eose and Crown Hotel, Ky. Lonsdale, where doubtless Her Majesty was staying. A writer in The Field remarked that " the story may be true or not. Lily Mere, from its small size and general surroundings, is not a likely place in which char would grow to so very unusual a size in so short a time. Probably the so-called char were nothing else than two fine trout with which the mere was then well stocked, and is so in a lesser degree at the present day." t " Some years ago a number of char were placed in Potter Fell Tarn, some four miles from Kendal, a sheet of water situate at a great height above the sea level, and abounding with trout. Occasionally a char or two were caught with the fly, and rigorously returned to the water. But they made no headway, and Mr. Banks, the owner, tells me that not one has been caught for some years. However, a strange occurrence following this attempt at acclimatization did take place. Some twelve months after the fish were placed in the tarn, an angler, below Burneside, on the Kent, took from the river, with fly, a nice char of half a pound weight. No doubt this was an escaped fish from the Potter Fell, and there is a narrow mountain beck which runs direct from that tarn into the Kent. There was no mistaking the identity of the fish, for it was brought to Kendal alive, given to Mr. Banks, who returned it in due course to the place from which it had strayed, quite two miles away. The fact of this fish taking an artificial fly in a stream suggests that the char might thrive if introduced into some of our rivers. There is no proof that it is destructive to other fish, and though its nature is that of a bottom or at least a mid-water feeder, the instances of Hawes Water, Goats Water, and of this one in the Kent, are presumptive proof that, with altered conditions, the char adapts itself to circumstances, and feeds freely at the surface of the water. The fact is, both trout and char ' feed ' where they find the choicest morsels, and these so-called ' bad-rising ' trout in certain lakes are only such because their epicurean tastes are better suited by the food found below the surface. In other instances than the one mentioned are char caught by rod and line in the streams flowing into or out of the various lakes they inhabit, and though usually, not always, stray specimens, still they afford proof of the possibility of the race becoming settled inhabitants of at least some of our rivers " (E. B. L., Field). 16 242 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. in others white : at the lakes they are in the greatest perfection from July until October : while in Sutherlandshire they are said to be in best condition during June and July (Beports British Association, 1834), and I have found them in that county at this time with a tinge of orange all over the abdomen. In the lake district those from Windermere are most prized, while in Hawes Water and Goats Water they are small, in poor condition, and generally of inferior flavour. Potted char has been held in great esteem from very early times, and a writer in The Field, October 6th, 1883, remarked upon having come across a reference to it in one of the earliest Gazetteers ever published in England. It is a small duodecimo entitled An Historical Dictionary of England and Wales, published anonymously in London a.d. 1692.* As they soon lose their delicate flavour after removal from the water they are potted and thus considered a great delicacy. They should be simply fried if fresh caught. Migrations. — These may be simply from deep to shallow water at different periods of the year, or they may be undertaken at the breeding season to reach suitable spots, or these fish may disappear from one place where they had been planted, apparently owing to the unsuitability of the locality. If we investigate the history of the Lochleven char we find materials at hand on this subject respecting these fishes which are interesting. Commencing with Sibbald in his Scotia Illustrata, 1684, he observed among the loch fish " Salme- rinus. An Trutta parenchymate rubro, the Med Trout ? " and in his History of Kinross-shire, 1710, he referred to " the gelletroch or red- womb trout : it hath a small head ; it is usually eighteen inches long. The speckled trout : red-womb with white fins, taken in October with nets— some are reddish within, some whitish." Pennant, Tour in Scotland, 1775, observing of Lochleven, "the fishermen gave me an account of a species they called the Gaily Trout, which are only caught from Octoier to January; are split, salted and dried, for winter provision : by the description, they certainly were our char, only of a larger size than any we have in England or Wales, some being two feet and a half long" (p. 69). In Mr. R. Burns Begg's Lochleven Angler (1874), it was remarked that " char seems to have been by no means uncommon about the commencement of the present century, and several of the witnesses (before Professor Fleming and the sherifE and jury) referred to them as having been regalarly taken in considerable numbers with the net. . . . The Rev. Mr. Smith, who towards the close of the last century officiated as minister of the parish of Kinross for upwards of twenty years, thus referred to it in his History of Kinross-shire, 1793, " The gally-trough or char abound in the loch. What is remarkable of them is the size to which they often grow, some of them weighing near 2 lb., and they are never known to rise to a fly or to be caught with a hook baited in any way whatever." The weight here stated by Mr. Smith being the " old pound " is equal to nearly three modem pounds. ..." From some cause, which has never been satisfactorily ascertained, the char has for a considerable number of years entirely disappeared from Loch Leven, not a single specimen having been caught either with rod or net for upwards of thirty years. The very ' last of the race ' is believed to have been caught with the net in the latter part of the season of 1837 at ' the Old House set,' near the present Kinross House Pier" (pp. 23, 24). I have already referred (p. 218 ante) how in 1830, by a system of drainage, the depth of Loch Leven was reduced four feet and a half, and that the last of the chars was captured in 1837. But even in 1833 an old fisherman, Peter Whyte, * The same writer gave the following receipt for potting these fishes : — " Do not wash, but only wipe the fish with a moist cloth. Get a sieve basket, similar to those used to convey fruit to market. Place the fish in it, layer upon layer, sprinkling, as you proceed with the packing, coarse salt between each layer. They must not be packed tight, so as to allow the brine to run off. Leave them so for a couple of days or less, according to taste, some palates preferring pungency, others mildness. Then take the fish out of the basket, wipe them, take off the heads, and extract the entrails. Ee-pack them loosely in layers, applying spice and bay leaves to taste, in a pan or some other baking utensil. Cover the top over with plenty of fresh butter, put the pan in a moderately heated oven, and bake for two hours. Finally, take out the pan, drain off the surplus grease, and, having provided some clarified butter, conclude the process by potting the fish. Thus you have a dish fit to set before a king." CHAR— BEITISH, HOW CAPTURED. 243 asserted that these fish -were scarcely to be found, but continued that this had happened before, and his father had told him that they had been absent for seven years at a time. Although it has been observed that they never were very plentiful in Loch Leven, we have James M' Gill's evidence that he had seen two half -boll sacks filled with char caught by poachers during the spawning season in the North Queich between Lethangie and Lathro. It would seem to be by no means unlikely that three causes have been at work to destroy these fishes from Loch Leven : (1) indiscriminate slaughter, especially during the spawning season ; (2) decrease in the depth of the water of the lake following the drainage works, and (3) diminution of food occasioned by the drying up of the margins of the loch where snails and other suitable nourishment was previously in abundance. Means of capture. — Char are not so sporting a fish as trout, being more nocturnal in their habits and living in deeper waters. But in some localities they are found feeding at the surface and taking artificial flies* or other lures.f In Windermere they are netted in deep water, cubbies being the name applied to these fisheries.! ^- B. L. in The Field (January 22nd, 1887), observed — " All the earlier fish appearing in the markets are so taken, but as the weather becomes milder (say towards Whitsuntide), the nets are used in a different manner, so manipulated as to fish in mid-water only, the char having now come nearer the surface. But by far the most important and interesting means of taking char here is by means of the plumb-line (see p. 235 ante). . . . The baits usually used are artificial, pieces of metal silvered on one side, copper, red, green, or brown on the other, spinning from either the head or tail. Minnows can be used in the same way, spoon baits too, and both the blue Phantom and Gamet-qtiill minnows have been tried successfully. Still the natives prefer the metal baits, and the sizes used for ordinary trout are of course the correct ones. Usually two such lines as the above are worked by each boat, and the fisherman shows considerable skill in his manipulation of them and rowing his craft along at a proper speed at the same time — the latter is just sufficient to keep the baits spinning and the tackle taut. The boatman knows the ground char frequent, and the nature of the bottom too, for should he come upon rocks and weeds his tackle gets entangled, and a big smash must almost inevitably result. ... In Ooniston Water, Bassenthwaite, Ennerdale, &c., this fish is taken by similar means, but in smaller quantities. In Hawes Water and Goats Water, as already stated, it rises to the fly pretty freely, but it is seldom caught in any other north of England lake, excepting by nets and with the plumb-line. ... In the lake of Llanberris, where char are likewise fairly numerous, they are usually taken in nets, as they are in Lough Esk (co. Donegal) and in many other waters. In The Field of August 6th, 1883, a description of a night's char fishing appears, the correspondent using worms as bait. He appears to have had good sport, fishing from a boat, using two hooks properly baited about half a yard apart. Many years ago char were taken in the English lake district both with worm and salmon roe, but this was when they were spawning. I believe that the char rising best to the fly in Scotland are those of Loch Doon, in Ayrshire ; but they also take fly fairly freely in Loch Knockie, Inverness, during October; in the Tarfi", Kirkcudbright, also late * Mr. Bantook, Lochs and Rivers of Sutherland, observed "char abound in scores of the Sutherland lochs, but they are very rare risers to the fly, and have never been taken by any other lure." t E. B. L. likewise observed that " some thirty years or so ago most of the char fishing on Windermere, &c., was done by means of the ' otter ' or ' lath,' as it was locally called. Both flies and spiiming baits, natural and artificial, were attached to the line ; but, the fish being near the surface only during the summer months, such mode of fishing had but a short season. It wiU be between forty and fifty years ago since a Mr. Spencer, from Manchester, first introduced the plumb-line into the Lake district, no doubt his method being an adaptation from the one used in mackerel and some other sea fishing. Mr. Spencer, a capital angler himself, had the bestof tackle, and contrived to kill large quantities of char ; his success, season after season, speedily induced imitators, and the plumb-line did not take long to become established." t Praser, On the Salmon, dtc, 1833, p. 71, remarked, " I find that last season a man having a blaze of fir broom or heather in the left hand and a hoop or pock-net in the right, could fish up as many (char) as a net can do." 16 * 244 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. in the season ; in Oorry Lair, and in Lochs Ericht and FruoHe. Borley Locli, in Sutherlandsliire, is noted because it contains no other fish than smallish char, and in Loch Doule, it is said, this fish sometimes attains the unusual weight of 2| lb. In some of the Irish loughs char have been caught by anglers when salmon fishing with fly, and a specimen so taken from Lough Conn in 1867 was the means of determining that char were present in that water. A similar remark applies to a char caught in Lough Inagh about twelve years later, and a writer in No. 504 of The Field says in Lough Moy they are caught both in nets and on night lines, and in the same paper of December 25th last, a correspondent writes of having killed char with fly in loughs Ennel and Owel, Westmeath ; Glendalough, Derry, Clare, and in Connemara, and Currane at Ballinahinch." Breeding. — That char may be annual breeders was shown at Howietoun where a Loch Rannoch male was successively employed for this purpose in the season of 1882, and again in 1883, but it died prior to the season of 1884. The time of breeding is from* about November to February or March. At this time, at least in Windermere, their colours and spots are more intense, the mouth and fins become of a dark yellow or orange, and they are covered with a thick slime. These fish form a redd similar to salmon or trout.f Davy observed that the char more commonly avoids than seeks running water for the purpose of breeding, and that the gravelly and rocky shoals of the lakes it inhabits are its favourite breeding localities, rather than the bed of a river or brook where the water is in rapid motion (Physiological Researches, p. 272). Artificially changing the water daily has been found sufficient in order to hatch the eggs of these fish. He also tried two lots of young char from January 31st to April 1st, one brood in its globe was shut up in a dark cupboard, and only taken out for a minute or two daily to change the water and give food. The second was kept in the light, but no difEerence in size could be perceived. The following is an extract from The Field (March 29th, 1884), of an account * " The remarkable fact is reported from Transtein, in Bavaria, of a number of char (Salmo salvelinus) having been captured from the large char species kept in the Koenigsee, near Berchtes- gaden, which, upon examination, had been found ready for spawning. About seventy-six of these fish, varying in weight from 6 lb. to 14 lb., have been caught towards the latter part of June, and during the mouths of July and August, upon all of which, spawners and milters; the signs of immediate spawning were clearly observed. The usual spawning season of the char, according to the classification of the Salmonidce, being -October and November, leads to the question whether there exist now two species of char, and how the spawning in Midsummer of some of them can be explained. The German Fishing Gazette states that the ova derived from the giant char fish lately caught, havS been sent to the fish-hatching establishments of Saint Bartholomae, after the young fry acquired from the ova of the char during the spawning season of November and December last, had been first removed. The hatching of the ova from the summer spawning is proceeding quite satisfactorily at St. Bartholomae and Transtein." A writer in Loudon's Magazine of Nat. Hist., 1832, v, p. 316 (signing himself 0.), stated, " Windermere is fed by two streams, which unite at the head of the lake, named the Brathy and the Rothay ; the bottom of the former is rocky, and that of the latter sandy. On the first sharp weather which occurs in November, the char makes up the Brathy in large shoals for the purpose of spawning, preferring that river to the Rothay, probably owing to the bottom being rocky, and resembling more the bottom of the lake ; and it is singular that those fish which ascend the Rothay, invariably return and spawn in the Brathay ; they remain in this stream and in the shallow parts of the lake until the end of March." Mr. Braithwaite, Salmonidce of Westmoreland, 1884, p. 7, observed of the "gilt char" and "case char," "it is well known that they spawn at different periods between the end of September and beginning of March " (p. 7). f Mr. C. L. Jackson, Land and Water, August 14th, 1884, observed, " I have seen salmon on the redd, but could not say distinctly how they were working. Lately, however, I had a very good chance of watching char in one of the Southport Aquarium tanks — a far better opportunity than can possibly be afforded by looking down upon a fish in a river. We obtained a fine shoal of char from Windermere at the opening of the season this year. Soon after they came, I saw one of them had not spawned, and was busy making its nest. Its modus operandi was exactly as described by Mr. Buckland. It swam slowly down towards the selected place as though concentrat- ing its energies ; when it arrived over the spot, it threw itself partially on its side, and dropping the hind part of the body, it gave several violent blows (three or four) with its tail, scattering the gravel right and left. The impetus of the blows not only scattered the gravel, but drove the fish upwards in a slanting direction. Quietly allowing the force to expend itself, it then turned round, swam slowly back, and repeated the process time after time, until it had made quite a large hole." CHAR— BRITISH, BREEDING AND HABITAT. 245 of a visit paid by Dr. Leitch, of Keswick, in 1850, to inspect the " Char Dub," as it is called, in the river Liza : — " We went down the pastures by the little river side, circled by the grand snowy mountains ; the pillar, the steeple, red pike, and the dark walls of abrupt high land that shut in the gleaming steel mirror of Ennerdale lake. About three hundred yards above the lake, where a stone wall runs down to the river Liza, is a long ' dub ' or pool, one part of which is very deep. This is the famous 'Ennerdale Char Dub.' The fish had not yet gone down (the 26th of November), and we saw the bottom of the pool blackened with them. Many thousands certainly were there, and in a proper Ught the gleam and twinkle of their multitudinous white-edged fins was a pretty and singular spectacle. As they refused the red rag fastened, for want of hooks, to a pin, and with a thread flung by means of a fishing rod into the midst of them, we took means to drive them downward, and by-and-by procured two or three for the artist (Mr. Pettitt), who had remained at Buttermere to paint one of the char of that lake. Small as they looked in the water, they yet were occasionally as large as the Buttermere char. One or two were eight ounces, king fish, most resplen- dently coloured, red and gold bellied, fins with a pink shade in the centre, shaded into a brown ash hue, and edged with pearl colour, as they lay on the grass fresh from the stream — a most brilliant and elegant creature, wanting, however, the regular white spots, ' bedropt in hail,' which add so much to the beauty of the Buttermere char. On only one fine king fish I observed some dusky red spots below the median line. Their form is more like that of the Welsh than Orummock char, not so rounded in the outline. The ronnal or she fish, were much smaller and poorer in colour than those of Buttermere ; they were of an ashy, greenish hue, almost the colour of the robin redbreast's back, deepened by dark shadowy marks. They seemed almost all to have finished spawning ; and, no doubt, in a few days will descend to the lake. In that dub must be deposited millions of ova ; and it perhaps might be worth the while of the owner to preserve them by means of a dam, or temporary breakwater of any kind above, from being washed out of the ' ruds ' by floods, while a grating placed below might keep away pike or other fish likely to swallow the ova or young before they reach the lake." Diseases and causes of destmction. — -These are similar to what are perceived in trout, except that it seems to be a more delicate fish and requires deeper water, as will be referred to under the American char, Salmo fontinalis. Ullswater, forty years ago, was the best angling lake in the north of England. From the middle of April to the middle of September, unless the elements were decidedly adverse, the angler might be sure of a fair basket, either with the fly or with the minnow. Then the fishing became very bad about 1860. For many years prior to 1860 the Glenridding mines were worked without producing any striking injury to the fish, except to char, which, according to the best evidence attainable, spawned principally in Glenridding Beck. About 1860 a weir was placed across the Eamont, a little above its junction with the Lowther. Trout used to descend the Eamont in order to spawn in the Dacre and Lowther. This weir prevented those which went up the Lowther returning, and it was noticed that after that period the trout in that river increased rapidly. About this time an increase from the lead mines of twenty-five per cent, of debris, crushed and pounded rock, was discharged into the lake. Dead skellies, rarely seen, were after this often found on the shore and char appear to be extinct. Habitat. — In Norway the red char lives from a sea level up to 600 metres above it: in the S.E. portions of the country it is rare, in West Norway more common and captured in large numbers with a fly. Its flavour varies as greatly as does that of the trout, and it appears to thrive best in lakes where the tem- perature is somewhat uniform, without bottom springs and not having too large an amount of brook-water flowing in. It extends to Great Britain and Ireland, Prance, Southern Germany, and in the clear lakes of the Alps of Upper Austria, Tyrol, Bavaria, Switzerland, also in the Carpathian lakes up to 6000 feet above the sea. The Orkneys, at Hoy and Hellier, also being occasionally captured in Loch Stennes, and three were obtained in Waas, in 1832 (W. Baikie) : also from North 246 SALMONID^ OP BRITAIN. Uist in tlie Hebrides. Examples from Sutherland shire are in the British Museum, while Mr. J. Harvie-Brown informs me that there is a char loch about twenty-five miles from Durness, on Ben Hope, where they are taken up to If lb. weight. At Midsummer they are only known to rise at one part of the loch, on its S.E. side, between the exit of the stream and the island, Druck Doon (Ayrshire). In Sep- tenaber numbers are taken with both worm and fly. Mr. Bantock says that char abound in scores of the Sutherlandshire lochs, and mentions the one referred to on Ben Hope, and another small loch (Borley) near the Manse at Durness ; they are also found in the upper end of Loch Assynt, Loch Altnagallach^and another near Oykell. Thompson recorded their existence and obtained specimens from Loch CoiT, Loch Moy, and Loch Killin, Inverness-shire, Loch Tay and Dochart, in Perthshire. Sir J. Gibson-Maitland has taken them in Loch Rannoch, they are also recorded from Loch Erioht. Pennant reported their occurrence in Loch Inch, Wig- townshire, and Thompson in Loch Grannoch, Kirkcudbrightshire. Also an example from Loch Bruiach is in the national collection. Black, 1844, observed that this fish had of late years disappeared from Loch Leven. In England the lake districts of Cumberland, Northumberland, and part of Lancashire, more especially in Windermere, Keswick, Crummoch Water, Butter- mere, Ennerdale, Coniston Water, Bassenthwaite lake. West Water, Hawes Water, and occasionally one is now found in Ullswater ; the area where char do or did frequent was estimated at 35,320 acres. Windermere, we are informed (1878), is very productive, while in Coniston the fish have been poisoned by the mines ; they are also found in Eydal. In Windermere they are somewhat restricted to the deep waters, and spawn in the River Brathay, avoiding the Rothay, which is more frequented by trout. In North Wales* this fish is still found near Snowdon, in the Lakes of Llanberris, Llyn Cawellyn, Llyn Coss-y-gedawl, Bala and Bettew Pestiniog in Merionethshire . In Ireland. In the county of Donegal it has been taken in Lough Esk (Camden), also from near Dunfanaghy, probably Lough Sessagh, where they are still found (Templeton), L. Gartan, L. Kmdun, L. Shessuch, L. Keel (Thompson), and L. Derg (Field, June, 1879), L. Elvyn (Couch), and Lough Veagh, while many of the Donegal loughs which have no appearance of a glacial origin, and in some cases, at least, as in the small bog loughs of Innishowen, they are nowhere deep (Ogilby). In Antrim from L. Neagh (Dubourdieu) : Thompson visited this place in 1834, and was informed that none had been captured for the last ten years, although twenty years previously they had been abundant. An. old fisherman explained the reason as follows : — " That they once went down the River Bann to the sea and never came back again." In Monaghan at Lough Eaghish (incorrectly spelt Esk) according to Templeton, who stated they had become very rare and were all but extinct. In Fermanagh at Lough Melvin and L. Erne (Thompson), Westmeath in Belvidere Lake (Ball), loughs Ennel and Owel, county of Cavan in Drnmlane Lake (Thompson) ; in county of Mayo, Castlebar (Daniel) and Lough Conn ; county of Galway in Lough Corrib, and L. Bofin (Thompson), Longford at Lough Nabrach (Ball), Connemara in Lough Ourad (Davy), and Lough Inagh; Wicklow in Lough Dan (Thompson) and L. Lada (Couch), Waterford in four mountain lakes (Smith), Lough Currane, County of Kerry, and at Inchigeelagh in the county of Cork (Vyse), Loughs Mindorin and Minteagh of Innishowen (Ogilby). These fish usually average about 6 or 4 to a pound, or in the best water about six ounces each : but they have been captured in the lake district from 1^ to over 2 lb. and elsewhere been obtained heavier. The figures in plate IX are both from Windermere char captured at the same time, March 31st, 1887. No. 2 is a male 12 inches long, with 33 csecal appendages, and nineteen rows of scales between the base of the adipose dorsal fin and the lateral-line. No. 3 is likewise a male 11'3 inches long, with 42 cB3cal appendages. * It is rare to find ohar in Wales in situations under 1500 feet in altitude. 245- 2. American char, or Salmo fontinalis, Plate IX, fig. 1 (Male). Salmo fontinaUs,* Mitchell, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. New York, 1814, i, p. 435; Eichards. Faun. Bor.-Amer. iii, p. 176, pi. Ixxxiii, f. 1 and pi. Ixxxvii, f. 2 (head) ; Storer, Report Fish. Mass. p. 106 ; Kirtl. Eeport, Zool. Ohio, p. 169, and Boston Joum. Nat. Hist. 1843, pt. iv, p. 305, pi. xiv, f . 2 ; DeKay, Fauna New York. Fish. p. 235, pi. xxxviii, f. 120 ; Ayres, Boston Journ. Nat. Hist, iv, 1843, p. 273 ; Cnv. and Val. xxi, p. 266 ; Bingelow, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist, vi, 1850, p. 49 ; Giinther, Catal. vi, p. 152 ; Day, Brit, and Irish Fish, ii, p. 119, pi. cxx, f . 1, 2. Salmo lioodii, Richards. 1. c. iii, p. 173, desc. part. (spec, from River Mingan). Sal/mo nigrescens, Rafin. Ichth. Ohiens. p. 45. Baione fontinalis and erythrog aster, DeKay, Faun. New York. Fish. pp. 236, 244, pi. XX, f. 58 and pi. xxxix, f. 126. American char, American trout, Fontinalis, and in American works as red- spotted trout, speckled trout, spotted troutlet, hroole trout, common hrooh trout. B. x-xi, D. 12-13 (Jt%) I 0, P. 12-13, V. 8-9, A. 10-11 (fif), G. 19, L. 1. 122- 140, L. tr. 36-50/51-63, Csc. pyl. 25-40, Vert. 57-62. Length of head 4| to 5| (4| in a male), of caudal fin 6f , height of hody 4| to 5 in the total length. Eyes — in anterior half of head in adults — diameter of each from 4^ to 5 or 5i ia the length of the head, 1 to 1| diameters from the end of the snout, and from 1 to If apart. Hind edge of preopercle regularly curved and with a very short but distinct lower limb. Height of opercle equals twice its greatest width ; height of subopercle equals half the length of its lower edge which, with its hiud margin, forms a regular curve. The form of the various opercular pieces in these fishes is liable to great variation, frequently due to an apparent arrest of development ; this is also seen at Howietoun among examples which have had gill-fever in their infancy, and is considered to be one of its results. In one example the subopercle differs on the two sides of the same fish. The maxilla reaches to beneath the hind edge of the eye, or even a little beyond. Teeth — about six in a triangular band on the hind edge of the head of the vomer, but none along its body. Those in the jaws rather stronger than seen in brook trout of similar size. The head of the vomer extends more than half-way along the body of that bone, and posteriorly becomes somewhat blunted with age (see fig. 51). Fims — the rayed dorsal commences slightly nearer to the end of the snout than to the base of the caudal fin, its third or fourth ray is the longest and somewhat exceeds the length of the base of the fin : ten branched rays, the last being divided to its base, are not rare. Pectoral extends about half-way (in some examples more, in others less) to the base of the ventral, which latter is inserted below the centre of the rayed dorsal fin, laid flat it does not quite reach the vent in young fish, nor nearly so in adults. Caudal forked in the young, but becoming square with age, similar to what takes place in the trout. Scales — 40 to 49 rows from the lateral-line to the base of the ventral fin : 21 to 26 rows from the hiad edge of the base of the adipose dorsal fin downwards and forwards to the lateral-line ; from 185 to 235 * In the following pages I omit the consideration of several forms which have received names in the United States, as being scarcely subjects of sufficient interest in a popular work in this country; also, as to whether the American great lake trout, Salmo namaycmh, and its several varieties, is or is not identical with, or very closely allied to, the S. fontinalis, as such will have to be proved or disproved by the fish-culturists who are able to obtain these eggs from the former fish residing -in its native home. Dr. Giinther divided S. namayciish, " Catal. Fish. Brit, Mus." vi, 1866, pp. X and 123, as a true trout with teeth along the body of the vomer, from S. fontinalis, 1. c. pp. x and 152, as a char, with teeth on the head of the vomer only. Again, in his " Introduction to the study of Fishes," 1880, pp. 645, 646, he reiterates this, although in the intermediate period the error had been clearly exposed. Among various other erroneous statements, this mistake of Dr. Giinther's has been reproduced by the compiler of the remarkable article Salmonidce, in the present edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. 248 SALMONIDiE OF BRITAIN. rows pass from the back to the lateral-line. Colours — greenish along the back, becoming lighter on the sides and beneath, the whole being beautifully shot with purple and gold. Numerous round or oval spots along the back becoming fewer below the lateral-line ; anteriorly from the head to the dorsal fin many coalesce. Red spots above, on, and sometimes below the lateral-line. White edges with black bases to the upper margin of the pectoral and the anterior edges of the ventral and anal fins. Sinuous bauds of black or rings on the dorsal fin: the upper and lower edges of the caudal barred. During the breeding season the male is black along the centre of the belly, and on turning the fish wrong side up this appears like a black central band (interrupted by the yellow margins of the ventral and anal fins) with a brilliant yellow one along either side of it. In some the sinuous lines of the back merely extend half-way down to the lateral-line. The female is rather more green, the sides lighter, and it is usually more spotted. In the month of May, 1887, 1 was at the South Kensington Museum, and Mr. Eden showed me some of these fish kept in darkish tanks. They were of a lovely greenish purple, with two or three rows of small but intensely scarlet spots below the lateral-line : the bands over the back were not well seen, but the par marks were distinct in nearly all. They were three-year-olds and well grown. One male was so pugnacious that he had to be confined in a separate aquarium. In these tanks the water was kept clear, and a tussock of grass with its roots put in every third day.* The number of par bands in the young at Howietoun vary between seven and eleven or twelve, but in some specimens they are much broken up — in others, those on the lower half of the body are intermediate between the lower ends of those of the upper half of the body. When the New England States were first peopled from Britain this fish was called a " trout," for but few of the early emigrants could have had an oppor- tunity of observing a " char," and they gave it the name that most nearly reminded them of a form which existed in the mother-country. Mitchell, who first described it scientifically in 1814, remarked that this fish "lived in running waters only, and not in stagnant ponds, and therefore the lively streams descending north and south from their sources in Long Island exactly suit the constitution of this fish. The heaviest Long Island trout that I heard of weighed 4|^ lb." Mr. Perley, Gatalogue of the Fishes of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, 1851, considered "that there is but one distinct species of the brook trout in North America." Without following out the various and interesting accounts which have been given of the Salmo fontinalis in the United States and Canada, I propose to ofEer a brief synopsis of Mr. Brown- Goode's excellent report on the subject in Soribner's Game FisJies of the United States. It has its home between latitudes 32|° and 65° in the lakes and streams of the Atlantic watershed, near the sources of a few rivers flowing into the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, and in some of the southern afiluents of Hudson's Bay. Its range is limited by the western foothills of the AUeghanies, and nowhere extends more than three hundred miles from the coast, except about the Great Lakes in the northern tributaries of which trout abound. At the south they inhabit the headwaters of the Chattahoochee, in the southern spurs of the Georgia AUeghanies, and tributaries of the Catawba in North Carolina. They also occur in the Great Islands in the Gulf of St. Laurence, Anticosti, Prince Edward's, Cape Breton, and Newfoundland. They do not appear able to thrive in water warmer than 68° Fahr., although they have been known to live in swift running water at 75°. With water below 36° they are torpid and refuse to feed. The identity of the Canadian Sea Trout and the Brook Trout has been settled beyond a doubt. There are many variations and local races of these fish, the same stream often * Livingston-Stone, Domesticated Trout, ed. 2, p. 296, observed, reapecting this fish, that " if you want to make the colours of trout deep and dark, grow them over a black muddy bottom, well shaded. If you want to cultivate light and delicate tints, grow the trout on a light, open, gravelly bed." Also, as to thape — " If you wish to have trout short and deep, grow them in a deep stiU pond. If you want to have them long and slim, grow them in a shallow swift current." CHAR— AMERICAN, ITS VARIETIES. 249 contains dissimilar forms and those bred in different hatcheries may easily be distinguished. The same author observed that the Lake Trout or Salmon- Trout, Salmo namaycush, inhabiting the chain of Great Lakes from Superior to Ontario, as well as Lake Champlain and many other smaller lakes of the United States and of British America, has as its nearest relative the 8. fontinalis. The Lake Trout appears to have undergone modifications, being a char not land-locked, but placed under conditions directly opposite to those connected with those which are land-locked. It would perhaps seem like a hasty generalization to point to 8. fontinalis as the form from which the Lake Trout has been developed, but one may fairly take into consideration the fact that this species alone, of all the group of Salmo, is usually associated with 8. namaycush. Professor Brown- Goode considers that " the popular and scientific names which have been given to this species are due to the wonderful tendency of variation in size, shape, and colouration, which this species, like the Brook Trout, exhibits. Every lake in which they occur has its own varieties, which local authorities believe to be quite peculiar. Some are black, some brown with crimson spots, some gray with delicate reticulations like those of a pickerel." The fontinalis has been introduced from America into this country, and Prank Buckland, Land and Water, 1871, among other fish remarked, " American brook trout brought over by Mr. Parnaby, of Troutdale Fishery, Keswick," also in his Natural History of British Fishes, 1880, p. 346, he remarked, " The first specimens ever seen in this country were sent to me beautifully packed with moss in tin boxes, by some friends in America. The parent fish were obtained from Lake Huron, in Canada. Since that time the import of eggs of fontinalis has become a regular business," and Livingston- Stone observed that in 1868,* " one lot was sent to England to Mr. Frank Buckland, and was favourably noticed in the London Times" (p. 311). Varieties. — DeKay, Natv/ral History of New Yorlc, asserted that there were two distinct species, Salmo fontinalis and 8. erythrog aster, the first without, the second with red spots. A local observer remarked that in its native habitat, it " affects every forest pond, with its ' runs,' affluent brooks and larger rivers, presenting a large series of varieties in colouring, with, however, certaia prominent marks by which they are always referable to one species. In the deeper parts of large lakes, it has for company two other species — 8. confinis and 8. amethystus, both much larger fish, 8. confinis attaining a weight of 20 lb. Both are coarse fish and bottom feeders," and General Hardy, Land and Water, November 23rd, 1885, observed that " of course, it is subject to variation in the brooks, rivers, and lakes of its extensive range (I have known lakes, separated by a narrow ridge of a few yards wide, containing trout so different in colouring and shape as to cause an impression of existing specific difference)." " Fish inhabiting swift streams have lithe trim bodies and long powerful fins ; those in the quiet lakes are stout, short-finned, and often overgrown. In cool, limpid brooks, with sunlight, much oxygen and stimulating food their skins are transparenb and their hues vivid : in dark, sluggish pools they are sombre and slimy and are called black trout" (Brown- Goode, Nat. Hist. Aquat. Animals, p. 500). "Mic-Mac" writing from Boston, in The Field, April 22nd, 1882, observed, " One word with regard to our white trout. They certainly are not identical with the white trout of the Irish lakes. There has been a great deal of discussion and disagreement on the subject of this fish ; but at the present date the best autho- rities seem to agree that the sea trout of the provinces is simply a Salmo fontinalis that has emigrated into salt water, and changed its colour by that means. Anatomically they are identical with, externally they are very different from, a river fish — so much so that the veriest tyro will, after a day's fishing, be able to * Mr. Parker Gillmore, THmes, October 28th, 1885, claimed to have been the first who proposed the introduction of this fish into our waters in 1866-67, and at the termination of the latter year went to America, collected and shipped them to this country (that would have been in 1868), for which he had not only been left a pecuniary loser, but also that he had never been credited with his work. 250 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. tell at a glance a river from a sea trout. In the early summer or late spring they appear on the coast of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the province of Quebec, running up the St. Lawrence in countless myriad. Into every 'gully' and mouths of every river or good-sized brook they crowd, so that I have known of a man standing on the sand beach of the gully at Pokemouche, with a red hackle, taking them just as fast as he could land them and re-cast. They run quite even in size, from 1 lb. up to 3 lb., or more, but averaging about 1| lb. to 2 lb. They are bright and silvery, showing some red spots, but rarely any blue, and their flesh is deep red and very fine-flavoured. The motive for this appearance of the schools seems to be to follow up the caplin that run up the rivers at this season to spawn. In some of the Canadian rivers these sea trout are found more or less through the summer ; but, although I have been on or near several of the rivers, I have never been able to satisfy myself that there was an autumn run of sea trout, that is at spawning time, to be compared at all, in point of number or regularity of time of occurrence, with the spring run. In fact, I doubt whether they do spawn in fresh water ; and yet, if they do not, it would be a most remarkable exception to what we know of the habits of the Salmo family. We have here in Massachusetts a sea trout that is well known on the south side of Cape Cod, and called by the natives ' salters,' that also run up the mouths of the brooks in early spring, in this case coming up after the shrimps. Although evidently of the same family as the regular brook trout that are caught in the same waters, they differ from them even more than the Canadian sea trout do from their river confreres. The main difference between the latter lies in colour, whereas our salters not only are as silvery as a salmon, but their shape is very different-^they have very small heads, are roach backed, very deep, and weigh nearly twice as much as a brook trout of the same length. That they are more palatable to the gourmet is proved by the fact that they easily command a dollar a pound in the market, where the others wUl sell from ^7\ to 50 cents. Their flesh is very red, and the firm flakes are separated by a layer of fatty curd, such as we find in a fresh-run salmon with the sea lice still on him." Habits. — Similar to our char and, like it, appears to prefer deep water, ponds under eight feet in depth being unsuited. Is generally considered to have great roving propensities, and is not often found rising to the fly after having attained a pound in weight. It is somewhat a greedy feeder, and when artificially fed will often eat to repletion. A " Conservator " writing from Shropshire to The Field, remarked that he considered it useless for turning into a running water, as it drops down stream, while it does not attain to the size of our brook-trout, and in a lake will not rise well to the fly. He thought it as bad as pike in destroying- other fish, consequently he did not recommend it, although it is excellent eating, and fights well when hooked. It had been observed at Howietoun that these fish, as well as the trout, were much more shy* on Sundays than on any other day of the week, and this was ascertained to be simply owing to the attendants on that day being differently * Mr. Seth Gieen, superintendent of the New York State Fish Hatchery, says that in the fish-pond at the hatchery there are 5000 large brook trout that were all captured with the fly in unfrequented streams and lakes of the Adirondack region. These trout, he says, have convinced him that fish have reasoning powers and memory. When they were hooked and reeled slowly to the boats, they had time' and opportunity to note the form and character of the tackle that made them prisoners. They have never forgotten that. They will foUow Mr. Green as he walks about the pond. Let him have a walking-stick and a fishing-rod hidden behind his back, if he reveals the former to the fish, by holding it over the water, they pay no attention to it. But the moment he produces his rod with the tackle, away they all scamper to distant parts of the pond. Mr. Green says he will permit any one to cast a fly in that pond to his heart's content, as he is satis- fied that not one of the trout will come near it, so vivify do they remember their enemy of five years ago. At a recent meeting at New York, Mr. Green stated that he was trying to see if brook trout can be improved by mixing different kinds, since it is known that constant inter- breeding of animals deteriorates them in size and intellect. Mr. Green rather amused the meeting by maintaining that fish had reasoning powers, and that he did not see why they could not be improved in point of intellect. "If," said he, "we can breed a trout that has sense enough to avoid the nets of the poachers on Long Island, I am under the impression that some clubs that I know of would be willing to give somebody a chrome." CHAR— AMERICAN, BREEDING. 251 dressed* from what they were on week-days. While Livington-Stone (p. 29?) advised that if you wish to prevent a lot of trout being hooked out in the night by poachers, they should be well fed towards evening, and then two or three be captured by a small hook, and after a moment or two thrown back into the pond. They will create a panic amongst the rest, so that there will be no more fishing that night with a hook. In the United States we are told that this fish cannot thrive in water warmer than 68° Fahr., though they have been known to live in swift-running water at 76°, but Brown- Goode remarks this higher temperature has been among those in fish-cultural establishments, and " fishes hatched in artificial ponds may probably be inured to greater warmth than wild fishes can endure, and it is doubtful whether the latter are often found in warmer water than 60° or 65°." Below 36° they become torpid and refuse to eat. Breeding. — The eggs, as already remarked, are only about half the size of those of the brook trout, and although in some localities it has been observed to deposit its ova earlier than the trout, it does so mostly at about the same period. At Howietoun reducing food has been followed by decreased yield of eggs, and if the food is very much diminished to prevent fungus, such has been followed by temporary sterility. A very small amount of milt in these, and I believe likewise in the British char, is sufficient to fecundate a large number of eggs.f At Howie- toun the later in the season the eggs are obtained the larger seems to be the mortality among them. While fish, the first time they breed, do not spawn quite so soon as the older ones, they have not only a smallerj but a less number of eggs in proportion to their weight and size. 8 eggs from a 4-year-old averaged 0'18 of an inch each in diameter. " )j jj ^ ^ j> )j ^ -^^ jj )) )> )) The redds are not infrequently found in very shallow water§ and for this purpose they commence running from about the middle of September, but there is often a considerable difference as to the time when all spawn, while naturally they take from five or six to eight or ten days in the process. Milner in the United States tells us that at Waterville, Wisconsin, a pair of these fishes had selected a spot near the banks of the stream where the water was about 10 inches deep. The female had fanned the gravel with her tail and anal fin until it was clean and white, and had succeeded in excavating a cavity. The number of days the eggs take incubating at Howietoun in water from 43 to 43 J degrees Fahrenheit is from 79 to 81. Mr. S. M. Amsworth has compiled a table respecting the incubation of these fish in the United States, from which I extract the following : — Average temperature No. of daya to No. of days subsequently of water. hatching. before feeding. 37-0 . . 165 38-5 .. 135 ... 77 39-0 . . 121 40-2 .. 109 ... 60 41-0 . . 103 42-5 . . 96 * Livingston-Stone, Domesticated Trout, ed. 2, p. 219, observed that " their sensitiveness to colours is seen every week at the ponds where trout are domesticated, especially when their keeper changes a dark coat for a light one, or leaves it off altogether. The appearance of the unaccustomed light coat or white shirt will often frighten well-tamed trout into a panic." t Mr. M. informed me (April 24th, 1884) that late in the season he found some female fon- tinalis with ova, but possessed only two males, one of which was spent, and he merely obtained about two drops of milt from the other for between 3000 and 4000 eggs : out of these from 94 to 96 per cent, hatched. J See Livingston-Stone's observations as to the cause why the eggs of these fishes from some localities are smaller than in those from others (p. 25 ante). § The secretary to the National Fish Culture Association informed me (Nov. 4th, 1886) that some of these fish hatched in March, 1885, from eggs received from the United States, were now 9i inches long (having been measured by himself) and that between October 22nd and 29th, 47 fish, males and females, had already spawned, and between the last date and Nov. 1886, 20 more, from which he had obtained 8000 small eggs. 252 SALMONID^ OP BRITAIN. ge temperature No. of days to No. of days subsequently of water. hatching. before feeding. 43-3 89 . 45 44-0 81 45-.5 78 46-5 65 48-0 56 60-0 47 . 30 52-0 38 54-0 32 Seth Green's rule is that these eggs hatch in fifty days, every degree warmer or colder making a difference of five days. Hybrids. — These have been made among these fishes as observed (at p. 49 ante), and will be further referred to in detail. Life history. — Although when a few months old they do not require such a depth of water as trout, and do well kept indoors in rearing-boxes, it is not so as they get older, when, should the ponds in which they are be too small, they seem to stunt the subsequent growth of the fish. But, although it is evident to every fish-cnlturist, that among the same batch of young fish of every species of this family, some grow more rapidly than others, even when kept under identical conditions, the cause of this is not so apparent. Soon after these fish have absorbed the yolk-sac, it is common to observe how the larger ones take the best spots and strongest current of water, while the smaller ones congregate nearer the lower end of the trough where they will be least interfered with, the conse- quence being that the largest fry live where the most food is to be obtained, thus giving them another advantage over their smaller and weaker brethren. Also, fish of different sizes keep together. Over-crowding certainly does much damage (see pp. 43-46 ante). Other things being equal, such fish as have the largest supply of water grow the fastest, while they do better in moderately warm than in cold water, and they should be well fed. In ponds, unless the food is properly distributed, some may be insufficiently fed, when, becoming weak, they do not collect at feeding time. Means have to be taken to obviate this (see History of Howietoun, p. 72). Mr. Andrews at Guildford, states that he found that his yearlings ran from 8 oz. to 10 oz. and two-year-olds from 1| to 2 lb. each ; three-year-olds averaged 4 lb., and four-year-olds go 5| lb. to 6| lb. {Land and Water, July 22, 1882.) Livingston-Stone, Domesticated Trout, p. 253, i'emarked " I have seen a trout that was reasonably believed to be but two years old that weighed a pound, and I have seen one of the same age that barely turned the scales at half-an-ounce." " If you want to dwarf trout, keep them in cold sunless water, in close confine- ment, and with little food, and you will do it." Diseases. — Seem to be very amenable to Saprolegnia ferax, and it is very common to see the opercles shortened, apparently owing to having had gill-fever when young. At Howietoun many are believed to suffer from enteritis should the temperature suddenly fall. In American streams they are said to generally disappear when the trees are cut down, probably because their constitutions are unsuited to waters subject to rapid changes of the temperature, although they are able to stand a considerable heat at times. As food are excellent, the flesh may be white, perfectly pink, or of a deep red.* * Mic-Mao, ■writing from Boston to The Field of April 22nd, 1882, observed, "By-the-bye, I see that Mr. Francis Francis speaks well of our trout, i.e., Sahno fontinalis, as a table fish. If he found the ones he had, which he says were white-meated, good, I only wish I could send him a brace of good Cape ' salters.' We do not consider a white-meated trout as fit to eat, although I have eaten some, when taken out of a cool pool with rooky bottom and white sand margins, that were white in colour and with white flesh, but yet sweet and palatable. But I think there can be no doubt that to get them in their perfection the flesh should be red, or at least pink. We have a theory that feeding on shrimps has a great deal to do with the colour of the flesh ; it most CHAR— AMERICAN, ITS HABITAT. 253 Habitat. — The fresh waters of British North America, and contiguoTis portions of the United States. It has, during the last twenty years, been acclimatized in this country, and thrives in some of the places where it has been turned out, in Scotland, England, or "Wales. Although in Norfolk it has been stated to have done well, and grown twice as quickly as the brook trout, this is denied, and Mr. Southwell informed me (December 6th, 1886) " The remark that 8. fontinalis ' thrives well ' in Norfolk (among other places) is quite incorrect, of all those which have been introduced I doubt whether any survive. A few lake trout turn up now and then, but I don't believe they breed, and the only introduced fish which has done any good is 8. fario, already a native species, and even this finds but few of our rivers suitable for its reproduction." At Howietoun it has done fairly well, but does not often seem to live over its fifth year, being very susceptible to atmospheric changes and needing deep water. In Mr. Andrews' ponds, in Surrey, it is said to have done well, while in Bagshot Park it is likewise stated to have thriven. But although there are many waters suitable to these fish in the British Isles, there are more where it cannot be expected they could thrive — quantity, depth, temperature, and purity having all to be considered (see how char in Loch Leven have disappeared, p. 242 ante). As to the size the Salmo fontinalis attains, we are told that in the Bangely Lake, in the U.S.A., Mr. Page, in 1867, took one 10 lb., but they seldom exceed 2 lb. or 3 lb., and a 5 lb. one is considered a monster. In August, 1886, Mr. P. Grote took one at Meguntic, Me., which weighed 12|^ lb. Brown-Goode, remark- ing on these fish, observed that the Lake trout, 8. namayeush, sometimes attains the weight of 120 lb., while the common char, 8. fontinalis, even under similar conditions, never exceeds 14 lb. or 15 lb. In one of Mr. Basset's ponds, at Tehidy, near Camborne, in Cornwall, Mr. Cornish (Land and Water, May 1st, 1886) tells us that a 9t lb. one was captured in April, 1886 ; also that with this species, " Mr. Basset stocked his ponds some nine years since. This one was taken on a ground line, but the fish is said to show excellent sport when taken on a trolling bait, and it is an exceedingly voracious feeder. I apprehend, however, that its presence in a pond probably means the extermination of all common trout in it." The Maclaine of Lochbuie has acclima- tized this fish in a moor loch about 1000 feet above the sea, near Loch Uisk, in Mull; in 1884, one was captured 2^ lb. in weight, and they are said to have attained to 5 lb. The example figured Plate ix, fig. 1, is from a male specimen 9| inches long, from the Howietoun stock ponds. certainly has with the flavour. But on the other hand, I fish every spring a lake that is up on high land, fed entirely by springs, whose outlet runs into Lake Umbagog, thus forming one of the chains of the head waters of the Androscoggin, the trout of which are celebrated throughout the State of Maine for their size, deep colour, and flavour. In this lake, up to five years ago, there were no fish of any species except trout, and consequently they must have fed on flies, the larvffi of water insects, &c. It used to be poached through the ice in winter, when the only bait used was live bait — i.e., minnows, shiners, dace, &o. ; and either from the ones that escaped, or from the fact that after their day's fishing they put what live bait they had left into the pond, it now ig quite full of small fry." In the Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, 1882, ii, p. 10, we are told that in America the fontinalis "takes the first rank as a fish to be cultivated in ponds, provided the ponds are fed by springs or cold running water. Ponds not possessing these qualities are unsuited for them." 264 SALMONID^ OF BEITAIN. HYBRIDS. A trief account of hybridism among fishes, more especially as observed in the salmon family, has been already given (pp. 46-50 ante), and it has been shown that the existence of hybrids in this country has been recorded for at least the last two centuries. But, nevertheless, various authors now and again, even at the present day, have ignored the labours of their predecessors, and while admitting the existence of these salmonoid hybrids, have boldly asserted that they were their first nndoubted discoverers ! Another class has maintained that hybrids are unable to breed (see p. 49), for how else could the commingling of genera and species be obviated ? Again we have an intermediate class, who, admitting the existence and fertility of hybrid races, hold to the opinion that we have yet to learn through how many generations such fertility can extend ; and what will be the effect of intercrossing these hybrids among themselves, or re-crossing them with one of the original parents or any pure breed ? To partially solve some, at least, of these interesting questions. Sir James Maitland, f.z.s., at Howietoun, has devoted a very great amount of trouble, and gone to great expense during the last eight years or more, and when carrying out his experiments has given me the opportunity of being present while the crosses were being made, permitted me unlimited access to his hatching-houses and fish- ponds, and has supplied me with specimens whenever I have required them. Consequently, unless otherwise expressed, all the following experiments were made at the private fish farm at Howietoun by the owner himself. Of course, on obtaining a fish from a stream of certain appearance, it may convey to a competent naturalist the belief that it is undoubtedly a hybrid, but we require conclusive evidence first that such can occur between two distinct species, and secondly proof as to what will be the appearance of these hybrids. Here fish culture gives us undeniable evidence that hybrids can occur, that they are not necessarily sterile, and also what their appearance may be. From these we may decidedly recognize some forms by their colours, as those between trout and American char, one of which I received in 1882 from Sir Pryse Pryse, of Groggerdan, in North Cardiganshire ; whilst we have instances recorded of these two species of fish having been observed forming redds together in this country* when in a wild condition, and several anglers have informed me that they inter- breed in the Wandle as well as in Cardiganshire and elsewhere. If hybrid salmonidse are to be worth cultivating, the first question which arises must be which is the finest breed to employ, and whether the size of the parent has any peculiar modifying influence on that of the ofBspring ? In the British Museum collection are very fine examples, some termed " Bull-trout," others, " male salmon." I have never observed in rivers yellow bands on the cheeks of any except pure salmon, but they are distinctly visible upon a 43 lb. fish labelled "Bull trout of the Tweed " (Giinther, Brit. Mm. Oatal. vi, pp. 25-28), while this specimen has thirteen scales passing downwards and forwards from the adipose dorsal fin to the lateral-line, and only forty-three csecal appendages. In this case the question arises whether it might not probably be a hybrid, and in another fish * During Christmas week, 1886, Mr. Thomas Ford observed in a stream at Caistor, in very shallow and perfectly clear water, a female brook trout which had made a large hole, and a male fontinalis. There were half-a-dozen more common trout in the pool, but the fontinalis drove them all away, although they were the larger fish. "When shooting its eggs the body of the trout was subject to a tremulous motion, whilst its bade fin was occasionally out of the water. At times the fontinalis remained almost immovable just above the trout, but now and then it would go completely over and under the female fish. It was quite evident that the female trout preferred the company of the fontinalis to that of its own species. This is the second time that I have observed the crossing of the species in a state of nature." He watched it a quarter of an hour (Field, Jan. 9th, 1886). HYBRIDS— SALMON AND TROUT. 255 46 inches long from the Tweed, the cartilaginous hook on the lower jaw is very slightly developed, yet it was a male* (see p. 58 ante). As I shall show that salmon and trout may interbreed and produce fertile ofispring, it would become interesting to ascertain how such hybrids could be differentiated from the pure races, and whether the species which forms the male or female parent occasions perceptible differences in the young. I have already shown oau.se for supposing that hybrid salmon and trout do not lose their anadromous propensities. Hybrid between Salmon and Loohlevbn Tegut. Day, Proceedings Zoological Society, 1882, p. 751, and 1884, p. 18. Maitland, History of Howietoun, 1886. On November 25th, 1879, a man arrived at Howietoun with some salmon milt which Mr. Napier, the local inspector of fisheries, had despatched the previous evening from Stirling in a tightly corked soda-water bottle, that had been kept during the night in snow, and which seemed on arrival as if it had been frozen. This milt was employed for fertilizing ova taken from a four-year-old Lochleven trout, and a few of the progeny were successfully reared November 14th, 1882 : one, eleven inches long, was taken in my presence ; it was a male which I described in the P.Z.S., 1882, and likewise gave a woodcut of its head. Some of these fish when young were placed in the island pond along with the trout, and when that pond was drained in my presence, November 28th, 1883, several were obtained ; three of these I sent to the Economic Fish Museum at South Kensington, one 1 retained and examined, it also was a male {see P.Z.S., 1884). Several were transferred to pond No. 11. November 14th, 1884, on pond No. 11 being drawn, three of the above hybrids were captured, the largest being 16| inches long ; they appeared to be in good health, but none had shown any tendency to spring out of the ponds at ■ the spawning time. A specimen I retained was eleven inches long, or similar to the first taken the previous year. They were as follows : — B. X, D. 12 (f ), P. 12-13, V. 9-10, A. 11 (|), C. 19, L. 1. 114-118, L. tr. 24-25, 30-32, Ceec. pyl. 62-69. In the first the length of the head was 4|, of pectoral fin 6J in the total length, while in the second the length of the head was 5|, and of pectoral fin 7i in the total length. Both were males. Teeth in an apparently double row along the body of the vomer, and in both twelve rows of scales were present in a line passing from the adipose dorsal fin downwards and forwards to the lateral-line ; and from twenty-one to twenty-five from the lateral-line to the base of the ventral fin. In the first the rows of scales in the upper half of the body were very irregular, and in the second in the tail portion of the body. Colours — on removal from the water silvery, with a rich purple gloss, and from six to eight irregularly placed rows of black spots on the fore-part of the body, decreasing to three, or even two, in the caudal portion : no par bands ; two to five black spots on opercle, one or two on preopercle, some on cheeks and top of the head. Lower two-thirds of dorsal fin with large black spots, and white anterior upper edge : the fins generally grayish and darkest in the centre, the anal having a light front edge. Generative organs rudimentary. Htbe[d between Salmon and Lochleven Tegut. Day, Proceedings Zool. Society, 1882, p. 752 ; and 1884, pp. 19, 376 ; and 1886, p. 241. December 24th, 1881, about 20,000 eggs of Lochleven trout at Howietoun were fertilized with salmon milt obtained from the Teith. They hatched on * Professor Flower, o.b., the obliging Director of the Natural History Museum, at my request had the example opened, and it was undoubtedly a male. 256 SALMONID^ OE BRITAIN. Marcli 9th, 1882, or in 75 days. In due course the fry were removed to a planked pond at Howietoun, 20 ft. long by 5 ft. wide, and 1| ft. deep. Through this a stream flows, entering at its upper and making its exit at the surface at its lower end. On Nov. 15, 1882, we examined them, and the largest fish was 4| inches in length. B. X, D. 13 (tV), P- 13-14, V. 9, A. 11 (f), 0. 19, L. 1. 116-118, Csocal pyl. 61-78. The length of the heads of these hybrids were about i, and of pectoral fins from 5-|- to 6f in the total length of the fish.* The maxilla in these fish extends pos- teriorly to beneath the hind third of' the eye. The preopercle has a distinctly oblique lower limb in no. 1, but it is less strongly marked than in no. 2, while merely a simple curve exists in nos. 3 and 4. The csecal appendages were examined in two, one (no. 3) had 78, the other (no. 4) had 61 : and when hybrids between the same parents show such variations, it demonstrates the inconstancy in the number of these appendages. Colours — were nearly identical in all, from 12 to 13 par bands and the sides closely sprinkled with small black spots and a few red ones ; some black spots on the head, while in all the front upper edge of the dorsal fin was white with a dark intramarginal band,-)- and from 11 to 13 black spots on or between the rays. In November, 1883, three more of these fish were captured, which measured in length 6 '4, 6 '7, and 7'3 inches respectively,^ while the numbers were supposed to be about eight hundred. In these three specimens the number of par bands along the sides varied from 10 to 12, while the direction of the rows of scales showed great irregularity, and those between the adipose dorsal fin and the lateral-line varied from 12 to 14. On March 13th, 1884, these hybrids, numbering 212, the largest six being over 10 inches in length, the majority smaller, while a few did not exceed 2^ inches, and all apparently in excellent health, were transferred to the octagon pond at Craigend, the diameter of which is 20 ft., and its depth 4 ft. ; its sides and bottom are planked, while the stream which supplies it flows in at about 1 ft. below the No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. * Length of example ... 4-3 . 3-4 . 4-1 . 4-0 „ „ head ... 0-9 . 0.7 . 0-8 . 0-8 „ „ pectoral fin . . 0-8 . 0.6 . 0-6 . 06 „ from snout to base of dorsal 1-7 . 1'4 . 1-7 . 1'6 „ „ „ „ caudal 3-8 . 3-0 . 3-6 . 34 Diameter of eye ... 0-2 . 0-15 . 0-2 . 0-2 From end of snout . . 0'25 . 0-2 . 0'2 . 023 Apart 0-3 . 0'27 . 0-3 . 0-3 Height of body .... 0-8 . 0-65 . 0.7 . 0-7 t As no white dark-based edging exists on the anterior superior edge of the dorsal fin in the Lochleven trout bred at Howietoun, but is present in most burn-trout, this forms another link in the chain of facts, that these two forma of trout are merely varieties of one species. } Length of example ,, „ head . „ „ pectoral fin . „ „ caudal fin . „ from snout to base of dorsal fin ,, }» ,, ,, caudal ,, Diameter of eye . From end of snout Apart .... Height of body ... No. 1. Inches. . 7-3 . 1-6 , 1-05 , 1-3 2-8 , 6-2 . 0-3 . 0-5 . 0-6 , 1-5 No. 2. Inches. 5-7 1-2 1-0 0-9 2-2 4-9 0-23 0-33 0-4 1-2 No. 3. Inches. 5-4 1-15 0-9 0-9 2-2 4-6 0-25 0-3 0-4 1-0 Specimen No. 1, had the teeth in a double row along the body of the vomer, scales in irregular rows in places, the upper two-thirds of the body spotted with black, some large red spots along the lateral-line, three black spots on the opercle and a fourth at its upper corner, one on pre- opercle, twelve par bands along either side. Dorsal fin gray with a white edge at its upper anterior margin, the lower half of the fin spotted with black ; adipose dorsal orange with a gray front edge. Specimen No. 2, nearly similar but a little more yellow, and with ten par bands on one side, twelve on the other. Specimen No. 3, had ten par bands on one side and eleven on the other, many red spots on the body. HYBRIDS— SALMON AND TROUT. 257 surface and passes out at the lower end at tlie same level, This stream rises from springs about half a mile away, and before reaching the octagon pond goes through the two 100 ft. ponds, which are stocked with Lochleven year- lings, consequently anything deleterious in the water must first affect these small fish. On one 6| inches long being removed, on Aug. 26th, when it was about twenty- nine months old, it was found to be a female, but sterile. The dorsal fin had three rows of black spots along its lower half. On Nov. 14th, a net was put into this pond, and the specimen 10 inches long, which outwardly looked most likely to prove fertile, removed; it was a sterile male. On Feb. 12th, 1885, one 9|- inches long was captured with a fly, to which it rose well. Its dorsal fin was spotted, there were 7 large black spots on the opercles on the right side, and 8 on those of the left ; a row of red spots along the lateral-line, and a second above it. A slight appearance of par bands was still visible. The fins anteriorly were white edged. These fish did not attempt to spring out of the pond until May, 1885, or when thirty-eight months of age, and in a similar manner to smolts when becoming grilse. On May 24th, one which was found dead was opened, and proved to be a female with the eggs developing, and which, had it lived, would evidently have bred that winter. In June, 1885, the water in the Craigend burn which supplies this pond, became very low, although during that month it never quite ceased flowing. That in the pond became so discoloured, it was impossible to see the fish unless they came to the surface, and their existence could only be demonstrated by throwing a very little food in, when they rose to take it. On July 3rd, a slight shower occurred, but rain still held off, and the fish appeared to be livelier than they had been for several days previously, and when fed at 6.30 p.m., some of them jumped quite out of the water at the little food thrown to them. The temperature at the surface was 64°, and experiments made since, show that it is 2° colder at the bottom. On July 4th, at 8.30 a.m., on Mr. Thompson, the manager, going to feed these fish, one was observed dead on the surface, while none of the others could be seen to move. The water was at once drawn off, in order to shift any that might chance to be alive, but only two were found to be so, and 142 were dead.* Some appeared as if they had succumbed more than twenty-four hours ; the two which remained alive, subse- quently quite recovered, and were put into another pond. The largest of the hybrids was 13| inches long, and weighed just over one pound.f In both examples the maxilla reached to beneath the hind edge of the eye : there were in one eleven, in the other twelve, rows of scales between the adipose dorsal fin and the lateral-line. Eggs small, but very distinct in both, as if the fish would have bred during the ensuing season ; in no. 2, in which the ova were largest, they measured O'l of an inch in diameter. It should be mentioned that in the 100 foot ponds above the one in which these fish died, none of the Lochleven fry succumbed. The cause of this unfortunate termination of a most interesting experiment must probably be sought for in the size of the pond and insufficiency of the * Two examples gave the following results : — Length of example . ,, ,, head „ „ pectoral fin ,, ,, tail » » eyes Eyes apart . to end of snout No. 1, No. 2, in inches. in inches. 10-4 10-1 1-9 1-8 1-5 1-5 1-4 1-3 0'4 0-375 0-7 0-7 0-6 0-5 f Mr Thompson observed (July 10th, 1885), that among these dead fish " there were more males than females, I think, but there were a good many, I was not quite sure of their sex (apparently barren), as in most hybrids : some bore resemblance to the male parent and some to the female, these last were fattest." 17 258 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. amount of running water to carry enough air in solution to equal the requirements of the fish. Temperature alone can hardly be the reason, because that of the ■water in the Howietoun ponds on the same day was 66° ; but there the supply, coming down the burn from Loch Coulter, was ample. The foregoing, however, proved one fact, that fertile female fish may be raised by hybridizing the eggs of trout with the milt of salmon par: that females so raised may breed in their third or fourth season, similarly to salmon, but later than in the generality of trout. One of the fish that survived was a male, employed Nov. 6th, 1886, to fertilize 3000 Lochleven trout eggs : on January 25th, 1887, about 80 hatched, and on June 27th the lot, numbering 55, were put into pond no. 2 at Howietoun ; they were strong, and from 1^ to If inches in length. The other, also a male, was likewise employed on Dec. 5th, 1886, for this purpose, to fertilize 7000 eggs of a Lochleven trout, but on Feb. 27th, 1887, only one or two hatched. But these instances proved that this class of hybrids may be fertile.* Hybrids between Lochleven trout and Salmon. December 27th, 1884. — Seven thousand ova from a Teith salmon were milted from a Lochleven trout, and about 5000 hatched in the old house on March 11th, or after incubating 75 days. There was a great mortality from when they had attained to a month old and continuing up to the time of feeding, many being weak and dropsical. June 30th, 1885, about 2000 were transferred to pond 4 ; Feb. 22nd, 1887, about 1000 remain, and they look very well, they have 13 par bands, a white edge to dorsal and anal fins, and a slight one to the ventral. Not many red spots. One measured 5^ inches long. March 1st, 787 were shifted to pond no. 7, the largest being from seven to eight inches long, but several were merely from two to three inches in length. Hybrids between Salmon smolts and Lochleven trout.f Day, Froc. Zool. 8uo. 1885, p. 242. November 11th, 1884. — About 12,000 eggs of the Lochleven trout, having an average diameter of 0'21 inches, were milted from three male Howietoun-bred smolts, the largest of which was twelve inches long and the shortest ten inches, all being silvery, but showing the remains of par bands. The following were the number of eggs picked out as dead : — November 34, December 28, January 25, while 2295 were found to have escaped impregnation. The rest hatched January 28th, 1885, or in 78 days, but between then and February 25th about 1000 died, for although the alevins looked well for the first three weeks (except that their eyes were rather small), a large percentage then showed signs of deficient vitality, the yelk-sac did not absorb, the young fish became dropsical, and nearly 2000 died. On June 19th about 5000 were transferred to pond no. 1 at Howietoun, along with some similar hybrids. In all these fish the adipose dorsal fin was lead-coloured. On July 26th, 1886, 1260 fish were shifted from no. 1 to no. 8 pond, and on October 12th one which was measured was 5j inches in length. July 5th, 1887, another, taken with a landing net, measured ten inches. * At p. 103 I have already recorded how 100 eggs from a dead or dying grilse were milted Nov. 7th, 1884, from a male Lochleven trout, and eighteen hatched January 23rd, 1885, or in 77 days ; seven remained July 4th, 1885, and were put with hybrids of the same description into pond no, 4. t On the same day about 800 eggs of Lochleven trout were milted from three Howietoun raised pars and smolts. A fair number hatched on February 5th, or in 90 days, but subsequently many succumbed to dropsy. June 19th, 1885, about 400 were shifted to pond no, 1 at Howietoun, along with some other similar crosses. HYBRIDS— SALMON AND TROUT. 259 Hybrid between Salmon par and Lochleven trout. Day, Proceedings Zool. 800., 1884, pp. 40, 376, and 1886, p. 241. November 29tli, 1883. — About 4500 eggs were obtained from a LocMeven trout which, had been hatched early in 1875, and these were milted from a par of the salmon which had been hatched in March, 1881, consequently was 32 months of age, and showed all the par colours. The number of eggs removed as dead during the 78 days they took incubating, were as follows : — December 65, January 18, February 4, or a total of 87 deaths ; while in addition 199 eggs were found to have escaped impregnation. Consequently although the mortality was small, it by no means gave a true index to the result of the experiment, for it was soon perceived that the young were not a strong and vigorous brood, while weak ones are useless for stocking purposes, even should they surmount the diseases and dangers of their youth. On February 15th, 1884, some thousands were hatched from these eggs, but nearly all were seen to be sufEering from what has been termed dropsy, or blue swelling of the yeik-sac, probably due to insufficient vitality in their constitutions. On March 12th, 1884, I first saw these young fish, then nearly a month old, and their average length being 0.8 of an inch, but what at once strnck an observer was the large pyriform umbilical sac, which seemed to anchor them to the bottom of the tank. Some were seen singly, others in groups, while every now and then one would start up and swim a short distance in an irregular or spasmodic manner, and then sink to the bottom. This dropsical enlargement in a con- siderable proportion of the fish was 0'35 of an inch in length, and 0'2 of an inch in diameter at its widest part, while it stood out in bolerable relief from the enclosed yelk-sao, showing the existence of two coats, separated one from another by an accumulation of clear fluid. Under a strong glass there appeared to be a want of vitality in the fish, the pulsations being weak, the activity of the heart being feeble, and the blood wanting in red corpuscles. Due to this dropsical distension, the pectoral fins were much impeded in their movements, which is a very material consideration, because in the young fish these fins are in constant motion, in order by keeping up a continuous current to assist the gill-covers in aerating the blood at the gills. June 24th, shifted from the house to the 20-feet pond at Howietoun, close to despatch house ; on August 29th, 1884, about 100 were alive. May 6th, 1885, temporarily placed in no. 4 pond, and on June 20th to pond 32, only 53 fish remaining. June 17th, 1886, they were about two dozen in number, and shifted to pond 16, all being small except two, one of which was twelve inches long, and f lb. weight. At this time some had one, others two rows of rather large pinkish-red spots along the lateral-line, and also above and below it. On November 23rd, 1886, 1000 eggs obtained from one of these fishes* were milted from a Lochleven trout, and about 700 hatched on Feb. 10th, 1887, or in 79 days ; they looked well. June 27th, 667 fish were removed to no. 1 pond at Howietoun, Crossing eggs of burn trout with milt from dead par. Day, Proceedings Zoological Society, 1884, p. 378. November 29th, 1883. — About 1000 eggs taken from a burn trout, S.fario, which had been some years in the pond, were milted from a par 32 months old, which had been a few hours dead. But not a single egg fructified. Only three turned white in December, three in January, and fifteen in February, or a total of 21. On March 12th the remainder were still clear, but without any signs of an embryo within, having evidently been unimpregnated. * Length of example, 9-1 inch j length of head, 1-9 inch ; length of pectoral, 14 inch. Lower jaw short. Scales near pectoral fin and along the back to end of dorsal fin very small : eleven rows between adipose dorsal fin and lateral-line. Black spots on the dorsal fin, having a light ring round them : anal with a white front edge. Tail very ragged. 17 * 260 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. As bearing on this, Mr. Buist filled a box -with unfertilized salmon ova, and treated them as if they were fertile : and he observed that they never turned white or opaque, like ova which had been impregnated, and subsequently died. (Brown, Stormontfields Experiments, pp. 39-40j see also p. 32 ante.) Hybrid between Lochleven trout and Salmon smolt. Day, Proo. Zool. Soe. 1885, p. 242. December 9th, 1884. — About 400 eggs, averaging 0"22 inch in diameter, of a Howietoun raised grilse, were milted from a Lochleven trout, but only half the eggs were impregnated. About 160 hatched on February 25th, 1885, or iu 78 days, and were turned into pond no. 4 on June 30th, very few having died. On February 2?th, 1886, some measured 3f inches in length. Hybrid between Salmon par and American char. Day, Proceedings Zoological Society, 1884, pp. 40, 378. Nov. 29th, 1883. — Three thousand six hundred and ninty-five eggs of an American char, Salmo fontinalis, were milted from a salmon par 32 months old : some hatchedFeb. 20th, 1884, or in 83 days. The deaths among the eggs in December were 144, January 1527, February 401, or a total of 3372. On March 7th, 1884, only seven were alive, and these subsequently succumbed. The amount of fertilization received in this instance by char eggs from salmon par milt was evidently less than that afforded to the larger eggs of the Lochleven trout. In the foregoing accounts of experiments on hybridism carried out at Howietoun, instances have been given of cases between the salmon Salmo salar in all its stages with the Lochleven trout,* and also with the American char. It now becomes necessary to follow out the crossings of the trout with the char. Zebra Hybrids, or between American char and Lochleven trout, Plate XI, fig. 2. Day, Proceedings Zoological Society, 1884, pp. 30, 378, 585, plate Ivi. November 15th, 1882. — About 3000 eggs of the Lochleven trout were fertilized at Howietoun with milt from an American char, Sahno fontinalis, they hatched on February 8th, or in 85 days. The mortality among the incubating eggs was as follows : — November 68, December 142, January 89, and February 41, or a total of 340 eggs, or a proportion of about 1 death to every 6 ova. The young were much malformed, monstrosities being numerous, some had blindness in one or both eyes, others had bull-dog deformities of the snout. Some were very light coloured, but not quite albinos, as the markings though pale were visible. In May, 1883, I received from Howietoun one of the specimens, it was 0'8 of an inch in length, the anterior portion of its head was deformed owing to want of development of the premaxillaries and contiguous bones, while its colours were white without any markings. July 20th, 1883. — I took four more specimens from the hatching box, and they varied in size from 1'6 to 1'7 in. in length, while the number of par bands varied from 8 to 11. The remaining fish were transferred to a large wooden tank raised off the ground and supplied with water from a stream, but was rather exposed to the east. * November the 27th, 1884.— 1296 eggs taken from a Lochleven trout were milted from a male sea trout, Salmo trutta, and on March 20th, 1875, in the afternoon, or in 113 days, about 900 eggs hatched, and on the glst only 10 remained to hatch, See also experiments of Shaw, Young, and Basch (p. 48), HYBRIDS -ZEBRA, OR AMERICAN CHAR AND TROUT. 261 On November 29th, three more* were removed for examination, and with the following results : — Specimen no. 1 was blind of the left eye, but the colours on its two sides were similar, and like no. 2, except having two instead of one band across the dorsal fin. Seventeen rows of scales between the adipose dorsal fin and the lateral-line. Specimen no. 2, eyesight normal. The finger-marks were broken up into arched bands, or circles enclosing spaces, the ground colour being yellowish : the upper surface of the head and back spotted and marked with black dots : the dorsal fin with a dark band across its centre and a dark spot at the base of its first ray. Twenty-two rows of scales between the adipose dorsal fin and the lateral-line. Specimen no. 3 had the right eye absent, the ball having retracted into the socket, while the left eye was almost blind, the pupil being reduced to a narrow slit, and a black spot was present on the sclerotic. When alive this fish appeared as a semi-albino, markings were present, but light in colour on both sides, more especially so on the right. Fifteen rows of scales between the adipose dorsal fin and the lateral-line. March 12th, 1884. — Upwards of 20 were found to be dead, so the next day they were removed to the upper planked pondf at Howietoun, into which 211 were turned, but some appeared to be very weakly. In three of these fish a remarkable change had occurred in the colour of their fins, the ventral, anal and caudal having become of a carmine red. One which was 21 in. long happening to die, I found that its left eye had never been developed, while in the right one there were adhesions between the iris and subjacent structures. In a second the left eye had not been developed, while the right eye had suffered from congenital malformation. The longest fish was a little over 3i in. in length. August 28th, 1884. — About 190 of these fish existed and were in excellent condition, and their appearance was very beautiful. J Teeth. — In a triangular transverse row across the hind and lateral margins of the head of the vomer, followed by three or four more teeth placed in a single series along the anterior half of the body of that bone : these posterior teeth, which may be four in number, are in a single median line, so far as I have had the opportunity of examining, and are always present as seen in fig. 52, 2 and 2a (p. 270), showing either that deciduous vomerine teeth may exist on the body of the vomer in char crossed by trout : or else, that instead of a double row of teeth along the body of the vomer, as seen in trout, they may be reduced to a few placed in a single row should such fish be crossed with char. Scales — 18 to 22 rows between the base of the adipose dorsal downwards and forwards to the lateral-line. Colours — yellowish shot with purple and reticulated with irregular black bands, spots, and markings along the body, but most spotted on the upper surface of the No. 1, in inches. * Length of example . . 2-7 . ,, „ head . . 0'6 . „ „ caudal fin . . 0.4 . Height of body . . . 0-5 . t Pond no. 3, twenty feet long, five wide, and containing about 36 inches of water. { The following is a description of two specimens removed from the pond, the second being the one figured on plate xi. B. X, D. 13 (^y, P. 13, V. 9-10, A. f, C. 19, L. 1. 128-140. CsBC. pyl. 37-39, longest J inch. Inches. Inches. Totallength 6-7 . 160 Length of head ■ 1-5 . 2-5 Length of pectoral fin 1-0 . 1-6 Length of ventral fin 08 . 1'3 Length of caudal fin .10. 2-1 Height of body 1-5 . 2-8 Eyes, diameter of 0-3 . 0-5 Eyes from end of snout 0-1 . 09 Eyes apart 1-5 . I'O Distance from snout to dorsal fin 28. 5'3 Distance from base of pectoral to base of ventral fin . . 1'3 . 37 Distance from base of ventral to base of anal fin . . 1-2 . 2-0 No. 2, No. 3, in inches. in inches. . 2-6 . 2-2 . 0-6 . 0-4 . 0-5. . 0-3 0-55 . 0-4 262 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. head and back; a few dark marks also on the sides of the head. Dorsal fin yellow, with black spots and irregular bands, the upper portion of its anterior edge being rather light with a dark base. Adipose dorsal with a black base and two black spots one above the other. Pectoral black-tipped. Anal with the three first rays white, posterior to which the fin is stained with dark gray, especially in its outer portion. Caudal dark-edged, and with a few indistinct bars at its base. It was a male with the milt very fully developed. November 12th, 1884. — Pond no. 3 at Howietoun was examined, and the females of the zebra race were not quite ready for breeding, while they appeared to be fewer in number than the males, some of which were ripe. On December 24th they were shifted to pond no. 5, a^ud 146 fish were present. September 8th, 1885, the largest removed with a landing net was 9| in. long. November 5th, 1885, on netting pond 5, all those examined appeared to be sterile, the largest fish being 12| in. long. Zebra Hybrids, or between American char and Lochleven trout. Day, Proa. Zool. Soc. 1884, p. 379. November 29th, 1883. — Three thousand ova were taken from a Lochleven trout of the season of 1875, and milted from a Salmo fontinalis. The number of dead eggs removed was as follows : — December 80, January 66, February 25, or a loss of 161, while 296 were found not to have been impregnated, or a proportion of one death to every 17 ova. These young fishes, in March, 1884, were much more advanced than the young dropsies {see p. 259 ante). June 24th, they were removed to the 20 ft. tank near the "Despatch House," where they continued until May 6th, 1885, when they were shifted to pond no. 3 ; on June 20th, they were again moved to pond no. 8 ; they now numbered 161. September 8th, a net full was removed, and the largest fish in it was 6f inches long ; on November 26th, they were transferred to pond no. 5. On October 15th, 1886, one 15 inches long, which died of fungus, had milt fairly well developed.* Leopard Hybrids, or between Lochleven trout and American char. Day, Proa. Zool. Soc. 1884, pp. 31, 32, 379. November 15th, 1882. — Eight thousand ova of an American char, Salmo fontinalis, were fecundated with the milt of a Lochleven trout. They hatched on February 7th, or in 84 days; the mortality during incubation was in November 28, December 575, January 1818, February 297, of a total loss of 2718. The young fry were greatly deformed , many had their spines crooked, atrophy was present in the posterior portions of some, and a deficiency of the fins generally, more« especially of the caudal. In May, 1883, the young were about 1 inch in length, and had about 11 par bands, the foremost four of which were mostly below the lateral- line, while the remainder generally crossed it.f On July 20th, the cross bands had become wider passing downwards to the belly and upwards to the back, which, however, they did not extend on to, but small and irregular bars descended towards the interspaces between the cross bands. The broad cross bars on the body were twice as wide as the interspaces, generally about nine in number, * December 13th, 1884.— Five hundred eggs, having a diameter 0-18 inches each, were obtained from a dead sea trout which had been gaffed, the wound having extended into the ovary, and possibly water also. The milt of a Howietoun grilse was added, they were put in box 84c on March 1st, one hatched, and it was turned into box 92. On February 24th, 1887, this fish was alive and well along with Salmo irideiis. t Sir James Maitland sent me one specimen 0-8 of an inch long ; its head and the anterior part of its body were normal, but posterior to the dorsal fin a general atrophy had taken place, and although the anal fin was fairly developed, the caudal portion was embryonic. It had six bars along each side. HYBRIDS— LEOPARDS AND STRUANS. 263 while another crossed the head, and a dark band ran across the middle of the dorsal fin. I removed three from the box.* On November 29th, an example 2'1 inches in length was taken from the remaining 16, the finger marks in this specimen appeared to have been about 12, but were broken up into irregular shapes, reticulated over a yellow ground colour. The back was black spotted. Dorsal fin with two oblique black bands, a light upper edge and a dark spot at the base of its first dorsal rays ; 15 rows of scales between the adipose dorsal fin and the lateral-line. These fish were kept under the same conditions as the Zebra breed, and on March 13th, 1884, only 8 remained and they seemed in rather an unsatisfactory state, and on December 24th, the last eight were shifted to pond 24, and again in 1886, to pond 16. Hybrid between British char and Loehleven trout. December 5th, 1885. — About 6500 eggs of S. levenensis were milted from a Windermere char which had been kept too long, for although the impregnation was considered good, there was a deficiency of milt ; in 84 days, or on February 27th, about 30 hatched ; and on July 30th, 20 were moved to pond 4. December 17th, 19 remained and were shifted to pond 23. They were fully as large as yearlings of the true Lochlevens and much more silvery. May 30th, 1887, moved to pond 32. Struan Hybrid, or between American and British char, Plate XI, fig. 1. Day, Proceedings Zool. Soc, 1884, pp. 38, 379, 586, and plate Ivii. November 15th, 1882. — About 9000 ova of an American char, S. fontinalis, were fertilized with the milt of a Scotch char, which had been termed S. struanensis, obtained from Loch Rannoch, and which had been retained in one of the boxes. The milt seemed rather thick, they hatched on February 9tb, or in 86 days. The mortality among the eggs was : November 28, December 309, January 1907, February 130, or a total loss of 2104 eggs, or nearly 1 in 4| ; due probably to the insufficiency of fertilization. There were no considerable amount of monstrosities or malformations. On May 20th, 1883, I received one IJ inches long, having 8 broad cross bands and many intermediate smaller ones, no band on the dorsal fin. On July 20th, I received four more of the following dimensions 1'3, 1'8, 2'0, 2'1 inches in length, and with from 8 to 11 par bands. In some, these par bands were much more broken up on one side of a fish than they were on the opposite, one had 9 wide ones, another had 6 to opposite the end of the dorsal fin, after which they were broken up. All had the light anterior edge to the first dorsal fin. November 29th, 1883, two more were removed from the tank of 28 and 3'0 inches respectively in length.f From 20 to 28 rows of scales between the base of the adipose dorsal fin and the lateral-line. Teeth along the head of the vomer, none along its body. These were kept under the same conditions as the Zebra and Leopard breeds. On March 13th, 1884, 91 lively young fish were transferred to a planked pond at Howietoun, and from among these No. 1. No. 2 No. 3 Totallength . 1-8 . . 1-6 . . 1-5 Length of head 0-5 . . 085 . 0-4 „ „ caudal fin . 0-3 . . 0-25 . . 0-3 Height of body 05 . 0-3 . . 0-3 Number of bars . 8&10 . 10 & 11 . . 9&8 No. 1. No. 2. Length of example . 3 inches , 2 8 inches. „ „ head 06 „ 0-6 )) „ ,, caudal fin 0-5 „ . 0-45 11 Height of body 0-5 „ 0-5 .. 2G4 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. one ?'3 inctes long* was removed for examination. The lower jaw was slightly deformed, being unnaturally shortened. Teeth — in a transverse row across the head, of the vomer, but none along the body of the bone. Scales — 23 rows pass from the base of the adipose dorsal fin downwards and forwards to the lateral-line. The dorsal, anal, and other fins are much more developed in these pure char hybrids than in the Zebra, wherein the char was crossed with a trout. Colours — of a beautiful iridescent purple, with thirteen transverse or par-bands along the sides ; the whole of the body covered with small light spots, none on the fins. Anterior edge of the dorsal, ventral, and anal white, also the outer ray of the pectoral. A few dark marks along the base of the dorsal fin, all the fins darkest at their outer edges. The specimen was a male with the milt very fully developed. November 12th, 1884. — Pond no. 4 at Howietoun was again examined, and 91 fish were present : the largest fish was 8| inches long ; most of the females were not quite ready for breeding, as December set in they began to be languid ; and one or two having died, they were shifted into pond no. 5, on December 24th, when 74 fish were transferred. The next day fifteen died, and two on the 26th. Subsequently few succumbed ; but one on February 12th. These fish seem, in their shallow pond, to have felt atmospheric changes very severely, requiring deeper water into which to descend, while it is very remarkable that the hybrid crosses between the American char and the Lochleven trout (9 leopards and 146 zebras) were not so aflected, although kept under precisely similar surroundings. November 25th, 1885. — The largest was 10^ inches in length, many were found to be ready to spawn, some not quite so, but from thirty-five fish from 10 to 12,000 eggs were obtained, some were crossed among themselves, as will be detailed. There were not so many males with ripe milt as there were females with ripe ova. February 27th, 1886. — A good many of the old struans have died since spawn- ing, they appear to be a delicate fish ; found four dead to-day ; it seems this f ro.sty weather kills them, as was observed last year. The hybrids between 8. fontinalis and S. levenensis are in the same pond, but none have died, so I conclude the cross with the trout has enabled the breed to stand the cold. Water is four feet deep. Struan Hybrids, or between American and British char. Day, Proa. Zool. 8oc. 1884, p. 379. November 12th, 1883. — Some eggs of the American char, 8almo fontinaliSfWere mUted from a Scotch char, 8. alpinus; the deaths among the incubating eggs were, in November 28, December 193, January 1028— or a total of 1449 deaths. On March 13th, 1884, there appeared to be about 500 alevins doing well ; and on April 24th, 1885, they were mixed with the other struans in pond no. 5. Struan Hybrids, or between American and British char. Day, Froc. Zool. 8oc. 1884, p. 379. December Ist, 1883. — Some eggs of the American char were milted from a ■i^, 0. 19, L. 1. 158, Ckc. pyl. 32-37 :— • B. xi, D. 13 (t%), p. IB, V. 8-9, A. Length of example ,, head „ pectoral fin „ caudal . „ ventral . Height of body Eyes, diameter of . Eyes from end of snout Eyes apart Distance from snout to dorsal fin ,, base of pectoral to base of ventral „ base of ventral to anal . . The larger of these two examples was a male taken October 15th, 1886, and is figured on plate xi. 7'B inches 10-5 inches. I'S „ 2-7 tt 1-2 „ 1-9 1-2 „ 1-5 n 0'9 „ 1-5 t» 1-9 „ 2-9 )* 0-3 „ 0-4 )» 0-4 „ 0-8 1) OS „ 0-8 }) 3-0 „ 4-6 M 22 „ 24 n 1-4 „ 1-9 M HYBRIDS— STRUAN RACE. 265 Scotch char; the deaths among the inoubating eggs were, in December 138, January 78?, February 194 — or a total of 1119 ; they hatched on February 16th. March 13th, 1884, upwards of 100 were present. On April 24th, 1885, they were shifted to pond 5, along with similar hybrids. Strnan Hybrids crossed. Day, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 243. November 12th, 1884. — Afemale struan hybrid, twenty-one months old, gave 146 eggs, which were milted from a male of the same breed. Only six hatched on February 3rd, 1885, or in 84 days. Struan Hybrids crossed. November 24th and 25th, 1885. — About 17,500 eggs were obtained from struan hybrids, and crossed by males from the same breed, they being at that time thirty- three months old. The mortality from the two lots was, in November 5735, January 5635, and February 393; 1054 were unimpregnated. They commenced hatching February 11th, and about 2000 young came out. Many were very weak, and the mortality became considerable. July 30th, 689 fish were shifted to 20 feet pond no. 3 ; and on December 27th 450 were moved to the botanical pond, which is about four feet deep. About the middle of June, 1887, and the subsequent three weeks when the weather was scorching and the glare great, many were observed to commence to lose their coloui-, to become somewhat similar to albinos, with the pectoral, ventral, and anal still showing the red colour. On a net being placed near them they did not move unless touched, and on being taken out of the pond were found to be blind : in those slightly affected in colour the pupil was fixed and the colour dull, almost opaque, in those fully affected it was quite opaque. At the commencement of July some wood was placed over the inlet end of the pond under which the fish crowded, but the temperature of the water did not fall until some rain fell on the 5th and 7th, when the fish seemed more lively. Some boards were now placed over a portion of the pond for the char to get under, but no other locality was available in which to transfer them. This instance is interesting, as showing how excess of light and heat, added to insufficient depth of water, causes mortality among these fishes. Struan Hybrids crossed. November 5th, 1886. — Twenty thousand eggs of this form of hybrid, 45 months old, were milted from males of the same race, the mortality being, in November 6895, December 4397, January 1503. This cross was repeated next day with 6000 eggs, and the mortality among them was, November 2526, December 1257, January 657, and 675 were not impregnated. They commenced hatching January 13th, and continued doing so for several days. Some of these hybrid parents were two years old, others a season older. As a rule, to which there were exceptions, these fish were weak. On June 14bh, 1887, 1250 were placed in box 4, and 1000 in box no. 5 in the hatching-house. Struan Hybrids breeding. December 6th, 1884. — Six hundred ova were obtained from a 22 months oldstruan hybrid. These ova had an average diameter 0"15 inch, and were milted from another struan hybrid and placed in box 104&. February 23rd, or in 79 days, 50 hatched and were transferred to box no. 92, hut only one lived, and it was placed in pond 3. 266 SALMONID^ OP BRITAIN. Struan hybrids breeding with Lochleven trout, Plate XI, fig. 3.* Day, Proo. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 243. November 12tli, 1884. — Pour thousand five hundred eggs from two Lochleven tront were milted from a male struan hybrid and placed in box 88 ; 1292 eggs were picked out during incubation, 1568 were unimpregnated, and the remainder hatched on February 2nd, 1885, or in 83 days ; among them were many deformities, a few dropsies, and subsequently a high mortality. On June 30th, 320 were placed in pond 3. Some were albinos, one especially was not blind at all, there was a black line along the top of the dorsal fin, the largest fish was four inches long. July 5th, 1886, doing well. November, 1886, their colours were very similar to those of the " zebra " breed, only being a little more plum-coloured along the sides, the dorsal fin less marked, and the head darker ; consequently, those hybrids which contain one-fourth of Lochleven trout blood and three-quarters of that of British and American chars commingled, have adopted the colouring previously observed in hybrids between the American char and the Lochleven tront, while the tints of the British char are almost absent. These forms are not sterile. March, 1887, there were 157 of these fish alive, the longest being 11 inches. July 7th, 1887, they were looking exceedingly well. Struan hybrids breeding with Lochleven trout. December 5th, 1885. — Seven thousand eggsof Lochleven trout were milted from struan hybrids, and on February 20th, or in 77 days, about 1500 hatched. July 30th, 1886, shifted 620 fish to no. 5, or 20-feet pond. Many were albinos. The mor- tality was as follows : December 63, January 311, February 1531, unimpregnated 3782. March 17th, 1887, they now numbered 500 and were moved to pond no. 4, and on June 14th to pond no. 13, there being 413 good and strong fish. Struan hybrids breeding with British char. December 6th, 1886. — About 1200 eggs from struan hybrids were milted from a char received from Windermere, but the fish was nearly spent, and only two hatched, on February 20th, or in 77 days, the impregnation being possibly bad owing to deficiency of milt. The following eggs were picked out : December 322, January 1335, February 223. Zebraf hybrids breeding with Lochleven trout. Day, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 242. November 12th, 1884, pond no. 3, at Howietoun, was examined, and the females of the "zebra" race were not quite ready for breeding, while they appeared to be fewer in number than the males, some of which were ripe : 1350 * B xi, D 13, P. 16, V. 9, A. 11, C. 21, L. I. 133, L. tr. U, Cseo. pyl. 45. " '" Inches. Length of example 7-5 „ „ head . 1-4 ,, „ pectoral fin . 11 ,, ,, caudal fin 115 „ ,, ventral fin . 0-8 Height of body . I'S Eye, diameter of . 0-3 Eyes from end of snout 0-4 Eyes apart . 0-45 Distance from snout to dorsal fin 3-3 ,, „ base of pectoral to base of ventral 2-0 ,, ,, „ „ ventral to anal . 1'4 This example was captured October 13th, 1886, and is the one figured. t Zebras are a breed of hybrids in which the American char is the male and the Lochleven trout the female parent (see pages 260-262). HYBRIDS. 267 egga were taken from a LoeMeven trout and milted from a " zebra " 8^ inctes long. These were placed in box 92a. Only about 12 of these eggs eyed, and merely 3 embryos developed, wliile they died unhatched. As a rule the eggs appeared not to have been impregnated. On measuring them I found that the majority averaged 0'24 of an inch in diameter. The cause of failure in this instance was probably due to the young age of the male. Hunter, as we know, was of opinion that hybrids in the higher forms of vertebrates were not productive, except in cases where the generative organs were in a condition of perfection, a state which might be considered unnatural in hybrids. But in fishes, the lowest of the vertebrate orders, the labours of fish- culturists lead one to modify those views, while Darwin and others have pointed out that domestication tends to eliminate sterility. It will now be interesting, first, to ascertain the average percentage of salmonoid eggs which are successfully incubated in a well-appointed fish-cultural establishment, and then to compare these with what takes place among hybrids. If we place the average proportion of salmon or trout eggs dying during incubation at 5 per cent., such is in reality more than usually occurs at Howietoun, but this figure gives us a basis from which to calculate losses by. But, as I have already observed (p. 26 ante), eggs from young mothers are subject to a greater percentage of deaths during incubation than such as are (to a certain extent) obtained from fish three or four seasons and upwards of age. While similarly milt from young parents may be a cause of failure in impregnation or mortality among the alevins and springlings. In first crosses for forming hybrids, and the first crosses of hybrids, we have the following records : — No. of eggs p-;i„„g„ No. of days incubated. <»""j^<=". Incubating. Male salmon (adult) and Lochleven trout 20,000 n ( )) ) n 71 u (young) „ n \ I* ) " " >» Male Lochleven trout and salmon (young) Male salmon (young) and American char Male American cbar and Lochleven trout 1881. Dec. 24th. 1884. „ 27th. 1884. Nov. 11th. 1883. „ 29th. 1884. Deo. 9th. 1883. Nov. 29th. 1882. „ 15th. 1883. „ 29th. 1882. „ 15th. 1885. Dec. 5th. 1882. Nov. 15th. 1884. „ 12th. 1885. „ 25th. 1884. Deo. 6th. 1884. Nov. 12th. 1885. Dec. 5th. 1886. „ 5th. 1884. Nov. 12th. Male Lochleven and American char Male British char and Lochleven trout Male American char and British char Male struan (young) and struan i :: ■ i zebra Lochleven British char Lochleven 7000 12,000 4500 400 3695 8000 3000 8000 6500 9000 146 12,000 600 4500 7000 1200 1350 about 28 per cent. 19 6 62 93 17 15 32 99 23 99 83 91 63 78 99 100 75 76 78 78 78 83 85 84 84 86 83 79 77 77 Of course one must not lay too great a stress upon the percentage of losses of eggs during incubation from the number of experiments here recorded, but taking them for what they are worth they would seem to point to the following results. Employing the milt of adult salmon to fertilize trout eggs the loss was as much as 28 per cent, and though the mortality among the yearlings and young fish was considerable, such must have been partly owing to the small amount of space which could be accorded to them. When we investigate the figures respecting Lochleven trout crossed by salmon smelts or par we find what at first appears strange, that the loss during incubation was far less than when the milt of adult fish was employed. This seems to be probably owing to mechanical causes, as I have already alluded to the size of the micropyle in the trout ova being of barely sufficient extent to admit the spermatozoa of salmon, but owing to the large size of the eggs of these trout at Howietoun this difficulty has been partially overcome. But employing young male salmon fertilization must be more readily efi'ected, still one point requires elucidation, 268 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. which, is, provided the mortality during incubation is not great, what is it among the alexins, springlings and yearlings ? In the first lot (laid down Nov. 11th, 1884) there was a great deficiency of vitality among the alevins, which suffered extensively from dropsy of the sac, about 10 per cent, dying during the first month and another 20 per cent, subsequently before June. A similar result occurred in the second lot (laid down Nov. 29th, 1883) wherein in fact by August, 1884, only 100 remained alive. Next we see (Dec. 9th, 1884) a few eggs of a salmon grilse which it was attempted to fertilize by means of the milt of an adult Lochleven trout, and hero doubtless the same mechanical difficulty already alluded to would take place, the number of eggs lost during incubation being 62 per cent ; only about one-half having been impregnated. Passing on to still smaller eggs, as of the American char, the attempt to fertilize them (Nov. 29th, 1883) with even young salmon was a great failure, as many as 93 per cent, being lost during incubation, in fact all but 21 out of 1000 appear to have escaped impregnation. In the next two experiments (Nov. 15th, 1882, and Nov. 29th, 1883, zebra hybrids) eggs of Lochleven trout were fertilized by American char and here no mechanical difficulty could be present, and the deaths during incubation were from 15 to 17 per cent., while comparatively very few were lost from want of impregna- tion. With two such distinct species as a char and a trout, crossed as described, we find deaths and deformities due to hybridizing, in fact to some physiological not mechanical cause ; while as the parents were both of pure breeds and no reason existed to suppose that the generative organs of either were affected, this would seem to point out that crossing these two distinct species was calculated to occasion deformities or monstrosities in the resulting offspring. Similarly fertilizing American char eggs with milt from the Lochleven trout (Nov. 15th, 1882, leopard hybrids) the mechanical difficulty would seem to again occur and the mortality during incubation was about 32 per cent, or double what toot place in the preceding cross. As might be anticipated the physiological deleterious cause was likewise present in this instance, consequently deformities were numerous. If we, however, pass on to a cross made between a male American char and a British char (Nov. 15th, 1882, struan hybrids) we see an almost intermediate condition. Here we can hardly suppose that the mechanical difficulty would be present, yet the mortality was as great as 23 per cent,, pointing to the physiological or pathological question, but the young were not so malformed as in the preceding crosses. But it may be a subject that has yet to be solved as to what is the relationship between the British and American chars ? This brings us to the consideration of are hybrids fertile ? and in the preceding experiments it has been shown that they are. But mere possibility of fertility from the males or females of these hybrids, however interesting physiologically, is not so much so to the fish-culturist and riparian proprietor who wishes to know the amount of fertility which might reasonably be anticipated, and through how many generations ? Also whether fertility decreases with increased hybridization ? Doubtless the amount of mortality among the eggs of hybrid Salmonidce is, as has been shown, very great, but the age of these fish is one factor that has also to be taken into consideration. First as to the interbreeding of stman hybrids, in the first year when this was carried out (Nov. 12th, 1884) or when the fish were 21 months old, the mortality was over 96 per cent, of the eggs, in fact out of 146 eggs only six hatched. On December 6th of the same year this cross was again made, but the mortality was over 91 per cent., and of the 50 which wer6 hatched only one lived ; these fish had no stamina. Breeding these struan hybrids among themselves when a year older (33 months old) gave the following result (Nov. 25th, 1885), a mortality of 83 per cent., but the deaths among the young, although consideralsle, did not reach to what occurred the previous year. HYBRIDS— FERTILITY OF. 269 The next set of experiments consisted in crossing hybrids with pure breeds. On Nov. I2th, 1884, when the struans were only 21 months old their milt was used in order to fertilize some Loohleven trout eggs, and the mortality during incubation was 63 per cent. It has been previously pointed out that male salmonoids are mostly more advanced for procreative purposes than females are. There were many deformities and albinos among these offspring. This cross was again tried, Dec. 5th, 1885, when the mortality was about 78 per cent, and many of the oflFspring were albinos. It would appear from the foregoing, it is probable when crossing two races of which the male belongs to the larger breed, that fertilization of the ova may be prevented owing to the size of the micropyle being insuificient to freely admit the entrance of the spermatozoa. That some physiological cause must be in existence which occasions deformities or monstrosities, and many eggs are unfertilized. Also that in such crosses the offspring are very weak. The colours in hybrid (zebra) offspring crossed by a race of pure Lochleven trout have not reverted to those of either of the original parents, but appear to be forming those of a very distinct and separate kind. It will now be necessary to notice the number of days the eggs of hybrids require for incubation and to compare them with what takes place in those of the parent species kept distinct but under similar conditions.* December, 1881, Lochleven trout eggs milted from salmon hatched in 75 days ; and in December, 1884, salmon eggs milted from Lochleven trout took *?& days. December, 1884, some salmon ova were milted from salmon and incubated under the same conditions as the hybrids, and they hatched in 79 days. In fact the hybrids, whichever species was the male parent, hatched four or five days before the home- bred fish. On each occasion of the milt or eggs from a Howietoun raised grilse being crossed by Lochleven trout they took 78 days in incubating. It must be self-evident that should any cause occasion salmon or trout or char eggs to be hatched prior to the normal number of days of incubation having elapsed, such cannot conduce to the strength of the offspring. We know this may be effected by elevating temperature (see pp. 35, 36 ante), and that weak alevins are the result. But when this is done by other means, as employing the male of a species (admittedly healthy) wherein incubation requires a moderate number of days to fertilize eggs from a healthy female of another species which requires a much larger number of days, and the period of incubation becomes reduced, it would seem to be a most probable result that certain pathological conditions would be set up in the offspring, such as were perceived in some of the hybrids already referred to. The American char, Salmo fontinalis, at from 43° to 43'5° Fahr. requires from 79 to 81 days for incubation, and crossing a female with a young salmon the period required was 83 days, and in two other instances where Lochleven trout were the male element 84 and 85 days : when the British char was similarly employed 86 days. But when we examine the period required for the eggs of hybrids inter- bred among themselves we see another alteration, almost a regular diminution in the number of days, as among the struans they varied from 79 to 83 days, but crossing these hybrids with British char or Lochleven trout only 77 days were required. Respecting the number of par bandsf on the sides of young hybrid Salmonidce * During the winter of 1886-7, at Howietoun, with the temperature of the water kept at 43° or 43-5° Fahr., the following number of days was found necessary for incubating the eggs of the following fish: — Salmon, pure, hatched at Howietoun, laid down in November, 81 days: sea trout, S. truUa, laid down in November, 81 days : burn trout, Salmo fario, not above 3 years of age, laid down November 11th, 79 days in one lot, 74 in another : Loohleven trout, pure 10-year-old fish, laid down in November, 76 days : Loclileveu, 8-year-old, milted in November by young burn trout, 75 days : Loohleven, B-year-old, milted in November by burn trout, 76 days : American char, S. fontinalis, laid down in November, from 79 to 81 days. t The number of bands appears to be in some way modified by locality; if the young at Howietoun are reared in water coming from Loch Coulter they have about 17, if from the small 270 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. (see pp 158, 227 ante) the following are some of the observations made at Howietonn : — Moat TDOO+ Greatest Average length. ,3* ^^^^ difference in Bands, oanas. ^ ^^^-^^ ^^^_ 7 hybrids of Salmon and Lochleven 11| inches 12 10 2 4 „ Zebra breed . . 9^ ,, 11 8 2 3 „ Leopard breed . . 9^ „ 11 8 2 6 „ Struan breed . . 9i ,, 13 8 3 This wonld appear to show that the difference in the numbers of these par bands in these fishes may be comparatively considerable. The number of rows of scales I have found existing in the various chars have been as follows : — British char. Scales along lateral-line 125-145 : from adipose dorsal to 1.1. 18-28 American char. „ ,, 122-142 : „ ,, „ 21-26 Hybrid char. „ „ 124-136: „ „ „ 20-28 The mode of dentition on the vomer alters in hybrids, as will be seen in fig. 52, showing how the teeth in the char, Salmo fontinalis, are restricted to an angular band of about six or eight situated along the hind edge of the head of that bone. But in crossing with trout the number of teeth on the head of the bone decreases, while the knob at the inferior end of the head lengthens along the central line of the vomer, where teeth in trout are situated, and this elongation serves as a dental ridge showing three or even four teeth along it. It may be a question whether any prepotency of sex among the parents of hybrids can be detected in the offspring, exhibited either in sexual development or in external characters ? Of course as trout and char may equally commence breeding when just under two years of age we cannot expect to find any prepotency of parental sex to be thus shown among the offspring, but it is different with the salmon, among which we may anticipate spawning at a year later than in the trout. In the cross made December 24th, 1881, between salmon and Lochleven trout, and which hatched in March, 1882, the fish were suffocated in July, 1885, but some would evidently have bred that winter or in their third or fourth season similarly to salmon: two which survived, and were males, were employed for breeding, November and December, 1886. November 29th, 1883, a salmon par was employed to fertilize nailt of a Lochleven trout, and among the few survivors of the dropsical offspring one female gave eggs November 23rd, 1886, or at 33 months. Consequently in all those instances where the male parent was the salmon the young did not breed before the 33rd month, or similarly to salmon bred at Howietoun, but twelve months later than trout or char. No. 52. Teeth on vomer of American char : 1, front view ; la, side view : of hybrid between American char and Lochleven trout : 2, front view ; 2a, side view. Craig-end burn only from 12 to 14, and those much broken up, the food being the same in both localities. The young of sea trout Salmo trutta (see note in p. 146 wnte), on July 6th, 1887, in pond 3 at Howietoun, were found to have 9 complete and some incomplete par bands, while some young of 8, fario in the next pond, no. 4, and of similar age, had from 10 to 12 of these bands. 271 MONSTROSITIES. The subject of monstrosities or abnormal variations among men and the lower animals, has always excited attention in every class of the community, for in times gone by they were considered, even by educated persons, as mysterioas portents of events which would shortly take place, or else the result of diabolical influences. And even now, in some districts, such ideas are observed to linger among the uneducated or the credulous, while they are more widely disseminated in Eastern climes. The very term monster has been derived either from the Latin term "monstro" to show, or from "moneo" to warn, in accordance with the views held by different schools of thought or superstition. For some imagined that these abnormal creatures showed the results of witchcraft, or the direct effects of evil agency as one may observe by referring to Rueff's work. Be Gonceptio et Generatione Hominis, A.D. 1580, wherein he devoted a chapter to the question "An homines ex dsemonibus et rursus dasmones ex hominibus infantes concipere possunt ? " And here he gravely arrived at the conclusion that these monstrosities had not really demons for their fathers. Even at the present day, in some portions of Hindustan, the natives deem it no crime to destroy such creatures at the time of, or shortly after their birth, as they hold contrary views to the conclusions arrived at by Rueff . Individuals of great intellect as Aldrovandus, Ambrose Pare, and many other illustrious men have held that these monsters being presages of Divine vengeance, were sent into the world in order to warn people of impending disasters, and Lycosthenes went so far as to add pictures to his descriptions of each variety of naonsters, and which he believed showed the calamity which its birth was intended to foretell. Vrolik observed that monstrosities were most numerous among domesticated animals, but " they seldom happen among Reptilia, still less frequently among Fishes, Molluscs, Articulata, and Radiata." Thompson remarked that they do not come by chance, but the laws regulating their occurrence are still undiscovered,* while monsters in a wild state have less chance of survival than perfect animals, being more or less unable to escape from their enemies. The period at which original malformations commence, may be at or prior to the time of fertilization of the ovum, for they may be congenital or acquired. Or it may be some cause affecting the development of the embryo from its earliest stage subsequent to fertilization ; and these last may be again subdivided into causes affecting the development of the embryo or foetus from within, or such as accidents, &c., which may occur from without. It has been remarked in the higher forms of vertebrate life that malformations or an influence originating such, may exist in either the ovum or spermatozoa prior to fertilization, as was observed in the case of a female cat at Cheltenham possessing an abnormal number of toes, which were reproduced in her young, and for several successive litters. Similarly, the father may be the origin of malformations : thus an otherwise well-formed man has been known to procreate with difierent women, children having the same deformity ; or even the malformation may miss one generation to appear in a subsequent one. These instances, which might be increased indefinitely, are only adduced to show that the * The observation " law of nature " simply, as Carpenter remarked, expresses a set of uniformities in the surrounding universe which man assumes to hold good just so far as they have been verified, but not necessarily any further ; while it accounts for nothing and explains nothing. 272 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. elements of deformity may be present either in tBe germ from the father* or the mother, and be communicated to the offspring, occasioning hereditary deformities which may extend over more than one generation.f Everyone who possesses even a very limited acquaintance with fish-culture, must be aware that monstrosities among the young as they emerge from the egg are by no means rare, and likewise that such can be hereditary as may be seen in the race of gold-fish, Gyprmus auratus, bred by fish-culturists. Now and again we find reference made to these monsters in the public press with surmises as to their cause, and then the matter drops until another is recorded and furnishes material for further discussion. The subject, however, is one that has engaged the attention of some of the foremost men in science, and that from almost immemorial ages, and if opinions are still divided as to the exact process of how these abnormal forms arise, still very much information on this point may be gleaned from the pages of scientific journals. I have, therefore, thought that it might be interesting to bring together some notes on this subject which more especially have a bearing on the monstrosities, and some pathological changes as seen among the young Salmonidae, whether congenital, or occurring during inter- ov^ian life being acquired ; or arise subsequent to that period and during extra- ovarian life. These divisions must therefore he restricted to the embryo within the ovum, or subsequent to its extrusion ; while the yelk-sac or alevin stage, may properly be referred to the latter of these periods. Monsters, as a rule, succumb as soon as the alevin absorbs its yolk-sac, and although it has been asserted that all the layings from certain females produce monsters, I have not as yet had the opportunity of showing such an instance, but have observed the contrary, e.g. all the young produced from a mother with bull- dog deformity being perfect. The following divisions of monstrosities and deformities, as seen among fishes, may be observed : (1) due to constitutional causes as from young parents, hybridi- zation, &c. (2) Congenital or hereditary causes'^ as hereditary monstrosities such as the various races of gold carp. (3) Acquired causes or accidental circumstances as arrest of development or accidents to the embryo§ prior to hatching. As regards the effects of constitutional causes on the proportionate number of monstrosities and malformations, such appears to be greater in hybrid fish, or when bred from pure parents, but distinct species, than when the breed is kept pure, or both parents are of one species. It thus seems clear that the element or cause of malformation must exist at the period of, or subsequent to the fertilization of the egg. As these monstrosities, &c., increase in hybrids interbred with hybrids, if the parents are very young, the same results are seen (see p. 265 ante) ; and the alevin may suffer from dropsy of the yelk-sac (plate XII, fig. 16), (see p. 261 ante). * This may be seen in an excessive number of fingers, harelip, etc. t Dr. E. Cutler, Medical World, 1886, iv, pp. 18-20, suggested that abnormal forms of sperma- tozoa are sometimes the cause of teratological conditions in the children, and stated that abnormal forms of the following character have been observed in the sperm of man. Spermatozoa with two or three bodies, with one body and two or three tails, with two bodies and two tails, and with two bodies and three tails. The average proportion of these monstrous spermatozoa is about 1 in 50,000, their movements are slower, but more vigorous than the normal forms. Monsters have been considered to be sometimes formed by an excess of development, one foetus may be contained within another in almost every part, or a more or less developed rudi- ment may adhere as a tumour to the outer surface of another body, and be even covered by the integument. Some have been compared to parasitic disease formed in the interior of the body of the foetus as hair or teeth, or rudiments of a second foetus internally or adherent externally. Vrolik mentioned a fcetal calf being bom, the tongue being the sole developed portion, demon- strating that merely a single well-defined organ may be present. J Gegenbaur has divided atavistic phenomena, or the reappearance of a more primitive organization, or a reversion to a primary condition into : (1) Palseogenetic if present in the germ, or by law of inheritance ; and (2) Neogenetic if absent in the germ. The existence of this last phenomenon is denied by Mr, Bland Sutton (Proc. Zool. Society, 1886, p. 551). § It would, perhaps, be useful in this class of fishes, to separate the embryo from the foetus in description, but in practice such would be difiEcult, for although such might define a period before and subsequent to the eyed period, but few would agree as to the precise time at which such occurs, or what position the alevin would hold. MONSTROSITIES. 273 As already observed, there are doubtless congenital or hereditary causes occasioning monstrosities, and which latter may be divided into double and single ones. The chief hypotheses which have been offered to account for double mon- sters are (1) by /msi'ow, or that they have been formed from two distinct embryos which have become united or fused together. (2) By fission, or that they have sprung from a single germ, which has doubled or become sub-divided. (3) That the germ itself was abnormally compound from the very first. It has been observed that we may arrange these monsters as existing in the higher forms of vertebrate animals in a continuous series from such as possess an extra finger or toe, to those in which two or even three heads have been present. While the examination of a large number of specimens has led to the conclusion that superficial portions of animals are more liable to multiplication than are internal organs, and those of the upper or anterior half of a body than its inferior or posterior extremities.* If, however, we restrict ourselves more to fishesf 'we can observe monsters with three heads (plate xii, fig. 11 and 11a), or with two heads (plate xii, fig. 8), or the chest may likewise be doubled ; or twin fish completely developed, but pos- sessing a single yelk-sac (plate xii, fig. 10) ; or only one is completely developed, the other being more or less in a rudimentary condition (plate xii, fig. 6). Or monsters with three or two heads may only possess one tail (plate xii, fig. 11), or they may be united by their tail portion (plate xii. fig. 9). Or the head and body may be single anteriorly, but the tail portion may be double (plate xii, fig. 4). Or there maybe three eyes (plate xii. fig. 1), or even four, and these may be variously situated. M. de QuatrefagesJ considered. Annals of Natural Sistory,% xv, 1885, p. 47, * Among vertebrates double monsters have been thus divided : — 1. Anterior duplicity, when two bodies become adherent to one another by their anterior surfaces (as by the sterna). 2. Lateral duplicity, as a common thoracic cavity : or it may be in two principal divisions, as dupMcity of the entire body, terminating in singleness, or duplicity of the remaining entire body, but the head continues single. Or in some cases the two heads begin to coalesce : then only one ear remains between the adjacent surfaces of the two heads ; or both ears may become lost ; or the two adjacent and middle eyes approximate, next there may be only one orbit ; or union of the heads ; or the head merely doubled in individual parts. The body may be single in the middle, but double above and below; or the body may be single above and double below. 3. Inferior duplicity, or two bodies with their lower ends united, a head above and another below. 4. Pos- terior duplicity, two bodies united by their baots, or portions of them. 5. Superior duplicity, as two children which have been born connected by their skulls. It has been remarked that there has been only one triple human monster recorded. t See M. Girdwoyn, Pathologic des Poissons, 1880. I A commonly expressed error is that double-yolked fowls' eggs always contain two embryos, and that during incubation one generally develops to the partial or entire destruction of the other, and that thus extra heads or organs are produced. Thompson, however, London and Edinburgh Monthly Journal, July, 1844, tried to hatch examples of these eggs, but failed ; in some it was evident that only one yolk was productive, and it would appear that double monsters are not dependent upon double yolks, although it has been thought that from such possibly twins might be produced. § M. de Quatrefages exhibited at the French Academy of Sciences, March 19th, 1854, a double monster which he kept alive nearly two months ; it consisted of two fishes completely separated one from the other, and adhering to the opposite sides of a vitellus, which showed a deep notch in the front. Of these two fish the largest had its face deformed, its eyes were absent, but the remainder of its body was perfect. The second or smaller fish had its head well formed, but its body was humped and its tail twisted. The abdominal veins (afterwards converted into the vena porta) were in their normal situation, their ramifications spread over the whole surface of the vitellus, communicating at their extremities with the roots of the vitelline veins, which sub- sequently form the hepatic veins. Also numerous anastomoses connected the last ramifications of the abdominal vein of each embryo with those of the vitelline vein of the other, so that a continual interchange of blood took place. On February 19th, nearly a month after the specimen came into M. Quatrefages' possession, and about six weeks after exclusion from the egg, the two embryos were close together, and ready to unite on one side of the abdomen, while on the other they were still separated by a considerable space occupied by the vitellus. The larger embryo had originally been situated to the right of the vitellus, but had become superior, lying somewhat across the smaller and more deformed individual, which it carried about with it. M. de Quatrefages, as well as M. Serres, concluded that this monstrosity had been formed by the coalescence or fusion of two originally distinct embryos, and that the vitellus from which it 18 274. SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. ttat these double monsters are formed by a coalescence of two originally distinct embryos, and that the vitellus from which his had been developed had also been double, the point of junction being in his opinion indicated by a deep notch at the anterior part of the vitellus. He also thought that certain living alevin monsters upheld his opinion. On the other hand, M. Coste believed that the vitellus was invariably single, and that the circulation in double monsters was common to the two embryos.* Thompson observed a double primitive groove in a single ovum which would probably have developed into a double monster. M. LerebouUet's observationsf appeared to demonstrate that double monsters had been developed, had likewise been double, the point of junction being indicated by the ' deep notch in the anterior part of the vitellus, which has been already referred to. * M. Coste asserted that the incubation in double monsters was common to the two embryos, that the greater part of the blood which had circulated in the body of one passed into the vessels of the umbilical vesicle (abdominal vein), whence the greater portion of it was carried by the vitelline vein to the auricle of the other embryo, and so on, and that, in accordance with this reciprocal circulation, the contractions of the two ventricles takes place alternately. (M. Quatre- fages beheved that he did not find this to be the case in the two instances observed by him.) M. Coste maintained that in double monsters there was only a single vitellus and umbilical vesicle, because at whatever age these monsters were examined, the vesicle was invariably simple, a view further supported by the condition of the circulation. That as the external lamina of the umbilical vesicle formed a common abdominal wall, enclosing the vitellus, it was impossible to regard the two embryos as distinct individuals developed at the poles of a double vitellus, and becoming eoalesoent at a late period of their youth, as they were actually united from the first into a single organism by this membrane, and their subsequent union was effected by the gradual con- traction of this membrane as the vitellus became absorbed. This conjugation was consequently a primordial phenomenon, and of a more intimate nature than one of simple adherence, as was described by M. Geofiroy Saint-Hilaire, wherein two chickens, hatched from two separate yolks contained in one egg, were found to adhere to one another by the belly. f He coincided with M. Coste's views, and his experiments made on the eggs of the pike, Esox lucius, showed that the development of the embryo commenced at the moment when the blastoderm had almost completely enclosed the vitellus, by the formation of a triangular tubercle on the blastodermal ridge, and that from this centre the embryonic fillet took its rise. In many cases this ridge of the blastoderm bears two tubercles, from each of which an embryonic fillet was produced, and the further development of these gave rise to double embryos of various kinds. He found that the formation of monsters could be determined at pleasure by placing the eggs in unfavourable conditions for development. He described the formation of several varieties of these double monsters. (1.) In some two tubercles budded out from the margin of the blastoderm, from each of which proceeded a fillet, furnished with a dorsal furrow, forming two embryos adhering to the marginal ridge. Soon afterwards the divisions of the vertebrie appeared, the external ones having their ordinary form and dimensions, while the internal gradually became confused, passing from the body of one embryo to that of the other, thus causing the partial amalgamation of the two embryos. In this way a double fish was formed, arising from two primitive germinating points, produced on the blastodermal ridge, so as to become partially joined ; it had therefore two separate bodies with a common tail. (2.) In other eggs the blastodermal ridge gave rise to a long and broad fillet terminating anteriorly by two rounded lobes. Two parallel furrows appeared in the fillet and soon developed the vertebral divisions, while the anterior lobes acquired a determinate form, and each produced two ocular vesicles, constituting a single body with two distinct heads. In these cases, however, the duplicity was transitory : the two heads soon came into contact, and became fused together in such a manner as to form only a single head. The mode in which this fusion occurred he had been unable to ascertain. In some cases the two heads appeared to remain distinct. (3.) Some embryos had a single head, two separate bodies, and one or two tails ; they were thus formed : — The ridge of the blastoderm, which had the form of a gaping button-hole, produced a single cephalic tubercle, but the formative process goes on in the whole circum- ference of the margin, each half of which acquires a chorda dorsalis and a nervous cord, and soon exhibits the divisions of the vertebrce. When the cephahc tubercle was short, and merely gave origin to the true head, each of the two bodies was furnished with two auditory capsules, two pectoral fins, and a heart ; but when this tubercle was more elongated the anterior part of the body was simple and bore two eyes, two auditory capsules and a single heart, and the body terminated posteriorly in two short branches. (4.) This organization of the ridge of the^blastoderm into a double embryo, seemed to explain the formation of a simple embryo, bearing on the right side of its body a small tubercle directed backwards and terminated by an auditory tubercle and an active heart. Here the resorption of the parts of the body posterior to the heart in one of the embryos was considered the reason, while he witnessed the complete disappearance of one of the bodies in the other instance. (5.) In another egg the ridge of the blastoderm showed two contiguous tubercles, one of which had the ordinary form of the cephalic tubercle, while the other was smaller and irregular. The first alone acquired a furrow, and gave rise to an embryo, on one side of which the smaller tubercle was borne. MONSTROSITIES. 275 were produced by fusion of two embryos, and tbe tbeory that attributed a separate vitellus to eacli embryo was incorrect. He believed there was only a single germ, but that this, by becoming developed in two directions, instead of one (as normally), gave rise to two more or less distinct embryos. That the blastodermal ridge plays a most important part in the formation of these embryos, and in fact constitutes the " true embryonic germ, which is always simple and single, like the vitellus which is covered by the blastoderm, but when its development is deranged from its regular course, is capable of vegetating like the substance of which the bodies of polypes are composed, so as to produce various forms, which however, in their subsequent development, always show a tendency to return to the original type of the species." Vrolik likewise remarked, as an objection against the hypothesis of fusion of two originally perfect and separate embryos, that double monsters "form one series, among whose several members the degrees and modes of deviation from singleness gradually increase, and pass without one abrupt step from the addition of a single ill-developed limb, to the nearly complete formation of two perfect beings." He considered one germ being provided with an excess of formative power becomes the cause and origin of every double monster. In fact, we do not see fusion, but an excess or irregular distribution of developmental power, and instances of singleness tending towards reduplication and not of reduplication to singleness. Valentin concluded that an injury inflicted on the caudal extremity of an embryo on the second day, had been found on the fifth to have produced the rudi- ments of a double pelvis and four inferior extremities. But Yrolik said, if we admit this cause for those large and principal types, we must acknowledge that such is insufficient to account for those cases in which, the body remaining single, some parts are double, and here excess of formative power is the sole explanation we can offer. In many double monsters there may be excess in one part and defect in another, the power being more or less excessive in quantity and being also wrongly distributed. " It is not impossible," observed Vrolik, " that excess of power in the ovum, which all admit can alone explain the lower degrees of duplicity, may, in proportionally higher degrees, perhaps by the formation of two primitive grooves, produce the most complete double monster, or even two such separate individuals as are sometimes found within a single amnion." The eyes may be modified in various ways, for some fish are born blind owing to entire absence of the eyeball, or it may be present on one side of the head but not on the other. In many cases the eyeball may be present, but in a more or less rudimentary or abnormal condition. Or there may be a single eye situated on or near the top of the head. Two eyes may be merged into one, or we may have three eyes, or even four eyes on one head (plate xii, fig. 1 and la), while in such as have additional heads the eyes may be normal in each, or, as in the example figured (plate xii, fig. 11), one eye may be absent from one of the heads ; while a double optic nerve has been observed with a single eyeball, or even a single optic (6.) Sometimes three heads were present, one of these was thus described by M. Lereboullet. It was a double embryo, composed of two bodies united behind, but quite free in front. One of these bodies was of the normal form ; the other bore two heads, of which that on the left was of the normal form and furnished with two eyes, while that on the right only bore the right eye, the union of the two heads being effected at the point where the left eye ought to have been. This embryo was still within the egg when described ; it had two hearts, one common to the two principal bodies, situated at their bifurcation, the other placed in the angle of union of the two heads. He considered that two fillets had been formed, one of which had been terminated by two cephalic lobes and acquired two furrows (as in no. 2), while the other oontined simple. These two embryos thus united posteriorly (as in no. 1) producing an embryo with one tail, two bodies, and three heads. (7.) When the development of the egg was retarded by means of a low temperature, the ridge of the blastoderm produced no embryo, but contracted gradually like the opening of a bag, its substance became condensed and formed a mammillated tubercle projecting from the surface of the vitellus. This tubercle continued living, rose more and more from the surface, acquired a linguate form, and at last constituted an elongated body, narrowed in front, divided transversely into vertebral lamellae, witliout dorsal chord or sensitive organs, but furnished with a heart of which the contractions were sometimes very lively. 18 * 276 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. nerve with a double eyeball, or the nerves may be present but the eye absent. How these additional eyes have been developed has been a cause of dispute.* The types of simple monsters may generally be classed under one cause, arrest of developmentf occurring in the normal course of embryonic life. And these may be shown in the head wherein the eyes, mouth, upper jaw, lower jaw, or opercles may be affected : or the body as in some portion of the vertebral column, or in the fins which may be shortened, lengthened, or the rays in an abnormal condition. Sometimes the upper jaw is the shorter, sometimes the lower, as may be seen figured in plate xii, and these monstrosities, especially the latter, are common among hybrids and fish raised from young parents. Although these monstrosities may be occasioned by increased growth, they are more commonly due to the arrest of development in some of the bones of the head. The bull-dog deformity of the snout or an arrest of development in the premaxillaries (plate xii, fig. 19) is by no means rare, more especially in fishes raised by the fish-culturist. The example figured was sent me from a burn near Perth, but I have also examples of fontinalis from Howietoun with a similar deformity, one of which was a female, from it many eggs were obtained, but none of the young were thus malformed, it not being inherited. J There may be an apparently shortened lower jaw, as is more commonly seen in hybrids or in fish artificially raised, than in those in their natural condition. Many, however, do not seem to be bom thus, and at Howietoun it has been observed to be most common in such as are kept in wooden tanks, and supposed to be owing to their using their lower jaws with injurious force against the * M. Camille Dareste (Arch. Zool. Exp^. et Gen. v, 1876) entered very fully into this question, least, among the higher vertebrates. The type of monsters, as he observed, which appear first in the embryonic evolution is that characterized by an arrest of development in the head, which shows neither eyes, nose, or buccal apparatus. This is rather rare. The head consists of a single bud, presenting in its lower part a cul-de-sac, the pharynx. He had observed, in fact, a great number of times, very diverse anomalies of the primitive groove in the region of the head. In many of these he saw that the primitive groove had not attained to the anterior extremity of the head. It is evident that under such conditions the anterior cerebral vesicle and the ocular vesicle which are dependent on it, cannot be formed ; or else that the vesicle is incompletely formed and becomes constituted as a simple rudiment. If the embryo continues to develop it presents the fundamental character of an undeveloped head. The next type, Cyclops, or a single eye in the median line of the face, or formed of two conjoined into one, or two eyes in one orbital space, or even in two orbits placed very close together or nearer than in a natural state, are merely degrees of one type. Geoffroy Saint- Hilaire, relying solely on the study of these monsters themselves, gave an account of cyclops formed by atrophy of the nasal apparatus and a more or less complete fusion of the eyes. Husche, on the contrary, began by observations of facts in embryology, and explained aU these forms of Cyclops by an arrest of development. He believed that he had observed the ocular apparatus was single in its origin, and formed a vesicle situated at the extremity of the cerebro-spinal tube immediately in front of the first cerebral vesicle. This single ocular vesicle enlarged in size transversely, and then divided into two parts and finished by constituting two distinct ocular vesicles, and situated on the two sides of the head. The interspace between the two ocular vesicles became occupied, little by little, by a prolongation of the cerebro-spinal tube, which first formed the vesicle of the third ventricle, afterwards the vesicle of the cerebral hemisphere. M. Dareste, however, considered that the ocular vesicles are separated from their first appearance, and that the cyclops is not the persistence of certain embryonic conditions but an arrest of development. t One very general cause of malformation is attributed to impeded circulation in the foetus, possibly first through the circulation, and subsequently through the nervous system. Vrolik remarked that " I presume to conclude that no malformation whatever proceeds from a. central system, but is occasioned merely by impeded development, the cause of which remains concealed. This impediment may be confined to one part, or may be extended over more." Abnormal development gives monsters wherein there is a deficiency if impeded, and excessive formation when such is in excess. J Mr. Eagle-Clarke sent me, 13th November, 1885, a specimen of trout from Penyghent {see Yorkshire Vertebrata, p. 127), with the under jaw projecting beyond the upper. All the fish in the beck (which is on the mountain side and has only a course of a short half mile, when it disappears into a deep abyss ih the limestone), are of the same variety, and locally termed " ground trout." The late Mr. Arthur writing from Dunedin, April 2nd, 1886, remarked of Lochleven trout which arrived in New Zealand " a year ago, a Government lot, have developed a singular deformity in the shortening of the lower jaw." MONSTROSITIES. 277 sides occasioning some deleterious effect. Sometimes the lower jaw is twisted round to one side, and may likewise be lengthened. Among single monsters the tail fin may be more or less horizontal like that of a shrimp (plate xii, fig. 5), or the body may be curved so as to form a circle round the yelk-sac (plate xii, fig. 12), or laterally (plate xii, fig. 13). Or the head may be much developed while the remainder of the body is rudimentary and much resembles a tadpole. The head may be variously malformed. In some forms we may observe distinct pathological changes in the spinal column as has been observed by several authors as " The Hog-backed trout of Plinlimmon," Cambridge Quart. Mag. 1833, p. 391 ; Cobbold, Edinh. New Phil. Jour. ii. 1855, plate vi. In plate xii, fig. 12 is the figure of a young trout in which the spinal column is bent into an almost semi-circular form and is of very great interest. It has been observed among the eggs transmitted to long distances that there are always some alevins born with spines curved into a more or less circular form. Attempting to swim they go round like dancing dervishes and die on the absorption of the yelk-sac. If, however, they are malformed to a lesser extent we find spinal disease and a hunch-backed fish resulting. In 1747 Mr. Barrington sent a paper to the Royal Society on the Hog-hacJced 'Irout of Plinlimmon. He remarked that they occurred in watersheds where there were considerable falls, and theoretically it seemed probable that such might be occasioned by injuries occurring to the embi-yo, and in 1886 I tried what would be the effects of concussion on eggs and their contents* (see p. 41 ante), and while the embryo was still unhatched : and assisted by Mr. S. Wethered, P.G.S., we ascertained that concussion had occasioned spinal injury (plate xii, fig. 15). In accordance with its extent the young fish has curvature of this portion of the body, and in the slightest cases they recover but with shortening of the spinal column, occasioning hog-backed deformity (plate xii, fig. 14). * The concussion of water falling from an elevation would act very similarly to the eggs being dropped from a height and might occasion spinal irritation with subsequent disease and absorption of the bodies of the vertebrae, thus reducing the length of the spinal column as figured, and, as is also very commonly seen in members of the cod family, but in nature these are soon eaten up. 278 SALMONID^ OP BRITAIlSr. Genus 2 : — Thymallus, Guvier. BrancMostegals seven to ten: pseudobrancMce well developed. Body somewhat elongated and compressed. Gape of mouth small ; maxilla short, rarely extending to beneath the middle of the orbit. Minute teeth on the jaws, near the head of the vomer, and on the palatines : none on the tongue. First dorsal with many rays (20-24 rays) : second dorsal fin adipose : caudal forked. Stomach siphonal. Scales rather large. Lateral-line well marJced. Omcal appendages rather numerous. Air-bladder very large. Geographical distribution. — In the northern hemisphere, generally restricted to fresh waters : in Europe, it appears to prefer cold and mountainous streams to more temperate climes, and abounds in Scandinavia and Lapland, the east of France and the north of Italy. The Grayling, Plate X, fig. 1. Thymalhis sen Thymus, Belon. De Aquat. p. 184; Salvian. fol. 81, t. xvi ; Rondel, ii, p. 187; Gesner, pp. 978, 979; Aldrov. v, c. 14, p. 594; Jonston, iii, tit. i, c. 3, p. 128, t. xxvi, f. 3, 4, and t. xxxi, f. 6; Willoughby, p. 187, t. N. 8; Ray, p. 62. Goregonus, no. 3, Artedi, Synon. p. 20, Genera, p. 10, Species, p. 41. Salmo, GronoT. Zooph. no. 375. Trutta, Klein, Pise. MSS. y, p. 21, no. 15, t. iv, f. 5. Grayling, Pennant, Brit. Zool. (Ed. 1776) iii, p. 311, pi. Ixi (Ed. 1812), iii. p. 414, pi. ixxii ; Low, Fauna Oread, p. 224 ; Davy, Salmonia, 1832, p. 198 ; Duhamel, Peches, ii, p. 218, pi. iii, f. 2. Salmo thymallus, Lin. Syst. Nat. i, p. 512 ; Bloch, Fisohe Deuts. i, p. 158, t. xxiv ; Gmel. Linn. p. 1379 ; Bonn. Ency. Ich. p. 167, pi. Ixix ; Bl. Schn. p. 410; Donovan, Brit. Fish, v, pi. Ixxxviii ; Pall. Zoo. Ross.-As. iii, p. 364; Turton, Brit. Fauna, p. 104 ; Gronov. ed. Gray, p, 163. Salmo thymus, Bonnaterre, 1. c. p. 167. Goregonus thymallus, Lacep. v, p. 254 ; Flem. Brit. An. p. 181 ; Jurine, Poiss. Lao Leman, page 179, pi. v. Thymallus vulgaris, Nilss. Prod. Ich. Scan. p. 13, and Skand. Fauna Fisk. p. 447 ; Jenyns, Manual, p. 430 ; Bonap. Peso. Eur. p. 23 ; Kroyer, Dan. Fisk. iii, p. 36, c. fig. ; Yarrell, Brit. Fishes (ed. 1), ii, p. 79, c. fig. (ed. 2), ii, p. 136 (ed. 3), i, p. 304; White, Gatal. p. 80 ; Thompson, Nat. Hist. Ireland, iv, p. 167 ; Schlegel, de Dier. Ned. p. 133 ; Siebold, Sus. w. f. Mit. Eur. p. 267 ; Giinther, Catal. vi, p. 200 ; J. Warnimont, Pub. de I'lnst. de Luxen. xi, pp. 1-48 ; Collett, Norges Fiske. p. 171; Feddersen, p. 78; Canestrini, Fauna Italia, Peso. p. 23; Houghton, Brit. F. W. Fish. p. 149, c. fig. ; Moreau, Poiss. France, iii, p. 543 ; Giglioli, Cat. Peso. Ital. p. 42 ; Day, British and Irish Fish, ii, p. 131, plate cxxiv. Thymallus vexillifer, Agass. Mem. Soc. Sc. Nat. Neuch. i, t. B, t. D, f. 5-8, and Poiss. d'eau douce, pla. xvi, xvii, sviia; Guv. and Val. xxi, p. 438; Heckel and Kner, Suss. w. f. p. 242 ; Blanchard, Poiss. des eaux douces, France, p. 437, f. 113. Thymalus gymnothorax, Guv. and Val. xxi, p. 445, pi. 625 ; Giinther, Fische des Neckars, p. 117. Grayling, Couch, Fish. Brit. Isles, iv, p. 280, pi. ccxxviii. B. vii-x, D. 20-24 (xlIfB) I 0, P. 15-16, V. 10-11, A. 11-14 (I.^l), C. 21, L. 1. 75-86, L. tr. Tflfa, Csec. pyl. 22-30, Vert. 89/22. Length of head 5^ to 6, of caudal fin 6, height of body 4j to 5 in the total length. Eyes — diameter of each 4 in the length of the head, IJ diameters from GRAYLING-DESCRIPTION AND NAMES. 279 the end of the snout, and about the same distance apart ; pupil pear-shaped or transversely oval. Its form is rather elongated and very graceful ; dorsal profile more curved than the abdominal. Upper jaw very slightly the longer ; the pos- terior extremity of the maxilla reaches to beneath the anterior edge or first third of the orbit. Teeth — fine ones in the jaws, near the head of the vomer, and on the anterior portion of the palatines ; none on the tongue. Fins — these vary with the sex, the last dorsal rays are somewhat produced in adults. The first dorsal fin commences midway between the end of the snout and on a line above the front edge of the anal fin, the height of its rays being about two-thirds of that of the body below it. Pectoral inserted in the lower fourth of the height, and as long as the head excluding the snout. Ventrals situated beneath the middle of the rayed dorsal fin, and comparatively small, terminating on a line below the hind edge of the adipose dorsal. Caudal forked. Scales — in regular rows, some small ones being present over the basal portion of the caudal fin. The chest, or that portion of it as far as the pectoral fin, may be entirely destitute of scales or else scaled. In the example figured there were thirty rather short caecal appendages. Walls of the stomach thickened. Intestines — ^with about 17 transverse valves, rather more complete than in examples of Sahno. Colours — these during life are beautifully changeable ; head of a bluish purple and a golden tinge along the back, while the horizontal lines along the body are dark, and each of the scales has a golden tinge. Dorsal fins with purplish bands and ocelli which have a purplish red centre, and there are likewise some purplish streaks along the course of the rays, while the outer edge is likewise purplish. Black spots scattered over the body, occasionally there are some on the fins. In some specimens spots are absent, which, though rare in this country, appear to be more common in Erance, as Valenciennes had many such examples. The brighter colours decrease with age, and gray lines show themselves along each row of scales ; while the young have transverse bars or bands. Names. — Thymallus was given to this fish by ^lian and also by Ausonius, from the fancied resemblance of its odour to that of the water-thyme,* upon which it was supposed to feed, an odour which many of the present day fail to detect ;t and others consider that they can observe a likeness in its smell when first captured to that of the cucumber. Some who imagine they are able to recognize this odour have suggested that the varying nature of its food may cause the grayling to occasionally possess a strong smell which at other times is almost or quite absent. Salviani in the sixteenth century observed, that being a swift swimmer it disappears like a shadow, from whence it derived its name umhra. " Grayling " is said to be a corruption of Gray lin or line referring to the longitudinal lines along its gray body. Oumer, Northumberland. Shutts, Sheets, 8hdtt, or Shot, young in the Teme as in their second year. While St. Ambrose of Milan is recorded to have termed * Dr. Hamilton observed that it was named from wild thyme, Thymus serpyllum, because the water-thyme is not British and has no smell. Ausonius, however, named it after a plant from •the Tioino and Adige. Donovan remarked that at the beginning of last century or earlier, it was indeed imagined by fanciful writers to subsist, at particular seasons, on what they denominated water-thyme ; they seem persuaded the powerful aromatic smell of the fish was contracted from this species of food, an idea apparently borrowed from iElian. f In Walton's Angler we find it remarked that "some think that he feeds on water-thyme, and smells of it at his first taking out of water ; and they may think so with as good reason as we do, that our smelts smell like violets at their being first caught ; which I think is a truth." Pennant "never could perceive any particular smeU." Donovan likewise "never ourselves observed any such smell." Sir H. Davy considered that it had " an agreeable odour." Valen- ciennes " never remarked this thyme-like odour in individuals which he had seen alive " (Vol. xxi, p. 430). Dr. Hamilton asserted, " I can distinctly aver that most grayling, when in season, have decidedly a thymy smell, very different to that of the smell which has the odour of cucumber. I think the larger fish, and when not in season, are devoid of it ; but in a | lb. grayling it is nearly always present" {Fishing Gazette, Feb. 13th, 1886.) Mr. Senior remarked {Waterside Sketclies), " A fish taken from the Teme I once thought had a decided smell of cucumber, another from the Itchen was redolent of thyme ; the first which the Wharfe yielded me smelt of something which the keeper said was cucumber, while I equally maintained it was thyme." The Gyrinus natator, Linn., has so strong an odour, that, when several of these insects are collected together, they may be scented at a distance of 5, or 6, or more paces (Eoesel). It is to the eating of these insects that Mr. Lloyd (Soandiv. Ad. i, p. 128), is inclined to attribute the remarkable odonr emitted by the grayling. 280 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. it the " flower of fishes." Aubrey in his MS. said that in his days the umber was caught in the Madder, between Wilton and Salisbury, &c. " This kind of fish (he remai'ked) is found in no other river in England except the Humber in York- shire. From that river, therefore, 1 conclude it takes its name of umber " (Maton, Nat. Hist, of Wilts.). Cotton, however, says this name is derived from its being very black about the head and gills and down the back, and has its belly of a dark gray dappled with black when in the season. One-year-old fish are in some places known as pinks, at about i lb. weight shot or shut, or those not breeding. Oray- ling or grawl is another name for grilse in Lough Foyle, Ireland (J. Johnstone). Brithyll rhestrog and Qlasgangen, "Welsh. Be Vlagzalm, Dutch. Ombre, French. This fish is another whose introduction has been ascribed to the monks, and many of the local grayling fisheries are found in the vicinity of where monasteries formerly stood, as in the lire near the site of the Jervaulx Abbey. But it would be difficult to convey this fish from the continent with the means then at their disposal ; while in Kent, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, where there were many monasteries, grayling are not found, also it is only this century they have been introduced into Scotland, while they have not yet been acclimatized in Ireland, but their propagation there is about to be tried. Habits. — Although found in many of our rivers, and in some abundantly, the grayling is certainly a local fish, while at times it appears to be gregarious, showing a tendency to congregate in small shoals, which often drop down stream. In this country it would appear to be strictly fluviatile and fresh- water in its habits, never migrating to the sea ; but in Scandinavia it is found in lakes also in the North Sea, Cattegat, and Baltic. Sir Humphry Davy tried it in brackish water but without success. It prefers clear streams, in which there are a succession of sluggish pools and shallows, with sandy, gravelly, or loamy beds, rocky or stony bottoms being unsuitable.* The larger ones seem to resort more to the deeper and quiet spots, the moderately-sized and small ones to the shallows, taking their post behind a rock or a bunch of weeds. Although clear streams are preferred, still a moderate or cold temperature of the water seems to be of more consequence, but too much cold or too much heat are asserted to be equally fatal to it. It is not every river that appears suited for the grayling, thus the attempts to acclimatize it in the Thames do not appear, so far, to have been a success, although a few have been captured there. It lives somewhat deeper in the water than the trout,t and although in some streams the two forms reside together on not unfriendly terms, should food be abundant, such is not invariably the case, as in some localities it is popularly said to bully the trout ■.% it may be * Dr. Hamilton says, " that grayling require rivers that are rather sluggish than swift, with deep pools connected by moderate rapids, subject to no very great fluctuations either as regards volume of water or temperature, and running through limestone districts is far from being the right one. No grayling grows to such a size or increase faster than those in our ohallj streams ; and no river fluctuates and changes its condition as regards volume of water more than the Teme." f Although it has been asserted that grayling do not feed upon the eggs of the trout (see p. 207 note ante), Mr. Currell (Fishing Gazette, March 6th, 1886) observed, " I have seen a shoal of grayling following the spawning trout and digging up the gravel, and have seen the trout rush open-mouthed at them and drive them off again and again." { The secretary to a Glasgmo Angling Club once wrote asking how to destroy grayling, as since their introduction the trout fishing had very much decreased. In other localities, as the Windrush in Gloucestershire, the Corve in Shropshire, &o., the two forms do not appear to interfere with one another. A correspondent of The Field (March 24th, 1883) observed, " Last August I had a few days' fishing on the Kennet. I was greatly interested in the history of the Hungerford Club, and one of the secretaries (with whom I was fishing) furnished me with the following facts, giving me full permission to make them public. In 1877, when the club was formed, the water contained a limited stock of very large trout, which were rarely caught except in the May-fly season, but it swarmed with coarse fish of all sorts. A war of extermination was commenced at once, and it has been so systematically kept up ever since, that up to the present time the club has killed 2745 pike, and 8273 other coarse fish on their own fishery ; and, on the water immediately below this, 696 pike, and about 2000 coarse fish of other kinds. This in itself is a wonderfully good work, but it is not all, for in 1879 fifteen brace of half-pound grayling were introduced from the Derwent, together with 2000 fry. The experiment has been watched with much interest, and each periodical netting has given evidence that the new stock is rapidly taking root. The wide, extensive shallow above and below the town bridge at Hungerford is the perfection of grayling water ; and all down GRAYLING— MIGRATIONS AND BREEDING. 281 tliat being to a great extent a ground feeder, it helps itself to tlie eggs from the trout's redds while the trout is breeding, It is not of a roving disposition and generally limits its range to within a few miles : it is generally reputed that it cannot spring out of the water like the trout, consequently it is unable to surmount barriers, a conclusion denied by Dr. Hamilton who says it can do so when hooked, but its large back fin, aided by its well-developed air-bladder, would seem to show that its formation is that best adapted for rapidly rising or sinking in the water. In early spring months it returns to deeper water and seems almost to cease to feed, possibly due to the nea,rness of its breeding season. It has been found to live in newly-made ponds, constructed in hard soil, where, however, it is said not to breed, but more investigation is required on this question, as the same was formerly believed of the trout: old and muddy ponds are not suited for its existence, for there it rapidly succumbs. It eats insects and their, larvee, small molluscous shell-fish as Physa and Neritina, also Crustacea, and is fond of the larvse of the caddis fly, in swallowing which, it likewise takes in the pieces of stick, stones, &c., which are attached to them. But it seems to prefer water-shrimps, beetles, spiders, and such food as it can obtain at the bottom, to the fly. Migrations. — I have already stated that occasionally these fish congregate in shoals and generally drop down stream, in fact, it used to be considered that they never headed up. Mr. Francis Francis [Field, May 28th, 1881) observed, upon one being taken in the Anton, continuing, that " only a few years ago there were none much above the sheep's bridge at Houghton. This year there are many in the Machine Barn shallow, two miles up ; but that they should have headed up some- thing like a distance of ten miles, and out of the Test into another stream, is astonishing." Mr.Wabram {Fishing Gazette, March 13th, 1886) remarked on having found them working both up and down stream in Yorkshire. Mr. Brotherston, of Kelso, observed that this fish was introduced there by the late Marquis of Lothian, and it appears to be particularly suitable to its habits, as it is increasing rapidly, and also spreading down into the Tweed. Breeding. — Generally spawns on the shallows in April or May,* or even earlier, while at a little distance the eggs somewhat resemble frog-spawn. Fish under half-a-pound weight do not appear as a rule to spawn, rendering it probable that they do not commence to do so until their third season, or possibly the fourth. On February 26th, 1881, Mr. Bowie Evans sent me two examples from Hereford- shire, and I found the ova almost ready for extrusion (the preceding winter had been a very mild one). The ova are smaller than those of the trout, and transparent, while the interior may be white, opalescent, cornelian colour, or even deep orange ; the eggs are deposited on the gravel near the tails of shallows, and in shallow nests or redds, like the salmon, trout, or char, but not to so great the broad water below they are already present in sufficient numbers for the angler to come across several in one day. For instance, on August 16th, on this water, I had a brace of nice trout, weighing 3^ lb., and three grayling, all of which went back again. But the way in which the grayling have prospered and increased may be better judged by the record of the last summer's netting, which shows that they took and returned to the water — Over 2 lb. From IJ lb. to 2 lb. From 1 lb. to IJ lb. Prom 5 lb. to 1 lb. 6 brace . 15 brace . . 50 brace . . 70 brace, and quantities of little ones. One fish of 34 lb. has already been found, and grayling have been met with at Newbury, which must be eight or ten mDes from Hungerf ord. Now, even if there be truth in all the evU things which are said of grayling, it is quite certain that they cannot injure the trout, in season or out of season, to anything like the extent that the 11,000 coarse fish would have done if they had been left unmolested. Moreover, the stock of trout is increasing enormously on the Kennet, and the water in some places swarms with store fish (I put back four brace one day, only keeping two fish above the 12 in. limit). Prudent conservators of any fishery will always bear in mind that it is quite possible to have too many trout in a river. However, in the Kennet there is ample room for a very large and good stock of both trout and grayling, and, in another year or two, anglers who have access to this splendid river wUl find that their sport is just about doubled." * The Eev. L. Bagot (Field, September 22nd, 1883) recorded the capture of a half-pound fish in the Corve on September 5th, full of spawn: and Mr. Webb, of Trowbridge, when fishing near Salisbury, on September 15th, among his captures of 75 brace of grayling took two of IJ lb. each which were full of spawn, the smaller ones were quite clean. 282 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. a depth. Neither do these fish attempt to pass up to the heads of streams for breeding purposes, but select shallow localities near where they usually reside, and where females may be seen waited on by two or even three males. The ova are more delicate than those of the trout or char, and it has been remarked in Herefordshire that shou.ld a severe frost occur during their spawning season, .the succeeding year's supply of young fish appears to be deleteriously affected. The body of the embryo is visible in the egg on the ninth day, and usually hatches from about the twelfth to the twenty-fifth day : due to this rapid development, it becomes diflBcult to transmit eyed grayling ova to any distance, as but few days elapse between the appearance of the eyes of the embryo and the eggs hatching. The young when hatched must be kept in very pure water, for that which is sufficiently good for a trout alevin is not always suitable for grayling. At the hatching time the egg-shells should be at once removed as they are found to be very deleterious. About the end of July or commencement of August the fry are about four or five inches long. In aquaria it has been observed that young salmon or trout will readily eat young grayling. During the breeding season the grayling loses much of its natural timidity ; thus we are told by " Southwest" in The Field, January 30th, 1886, that in the Test " About eighteen brace of grayling were removed on Wednesday, and laid down higher up the river, where they will probably spawn. They were conveyed to their destination in a punt half -filled with water, and as a proof of how little the nerves of grayling are disturbed by the somewhat rough handling they must receive from netting, I may mention that one of the fish in the punt actually rose at a tiny black fly that happened to appear on the water therein. I have noticed this singular absence of fear on the part of grayling on another occasion. We had netted out a considerable number, and placed them in an abandoned nursery, through which the stream ran. Certainly not more than an hour after their capture, they rose to the flies just as if nothing had happened." Hybrids have been raised between the grayling and the trout, thus it was stated in the Journal of the French Societe d'Acclimatation (1877, p. 495), that grayling eggs from the Lake of Pavia, were during the months of November and December, 1872, fertilized with the milt of the salmon-trout, and hatched in January, 1873, at the School of Fish-culture. The alevins grew well ; so that at 6 months of age they were 3| in. long ; at 22 months, 7 in. long ; at 32 months, 1I'4 in. in length; and at 42 months, 13'4 in. long. They were of a slate-colour, with greenish reflections, having on the back very distinct, large, and irregular spots and blotches on a light ground, while the abdomen was silvery. They bred at the age of 22 months and 5 days, when it was found that the males were already exhausted, and therefore recourse was had to trout milt. On November 15th, 1875, 551 very fine eggs were obtained fi-om a female 21 months and 15 days old ; these eggs were hatched between December 30th, 1876, and January 6th, 1876. The alevins were said to have grown more rapidly than trout of the same age, and at 10 months they were from 3| in. to 5'9 in. in length. In appearance these young difBered from the former ones by their coarseness and their habits, but par marks were present. Their colours were very similar to those of their hybrid mothers, being superiorly of a greenish tinge with large blotches along the upper half of the body, while the abdomen was of a gray slate colour, becoming ashy- white beneath ; adipose dorsal fin clear yellow. This * Grayling eggs -would seem to occasionally bear removing pretty well. April 3rd, 1885, at Mr. Andrew's fish-culture establishment at Guildford, I was shown 100,000 grayling eggs obtained the previous evening from Hampshire streams. I took twelve in a phial of water to London, and the next day to Cheltenham, and only two died : their size being 0-19 of an inch in diameter. On the 6th, E. Wethered, Esq., F.o.s., was good enough to offer to make daily drawings of the development of the embryo under the microscope (the glass-like walls of the ova affording peculiar facilities for doing so) : and for this purpose he took two in a tumbler of water to his own house. The water was changed twice a day, while each ovum was daily removed to a microscope cell and subsequently returned to the tumbler ; one of these hatched on April 22nd, and the other on the 24th. On the 23rd those in my hatching house began to hatch, and on the 28th all were out but one which could be seen inside the egg slowly moving its pectoral fins back- wards and forwards. By May 10th the alevins had absorbed their sacs. GRAYLING— BREEDING AND MODES OF CAPTURE. 283 cross was again, but unsuccessfully, tried at 33 months and 12 days, for all the eggs, 4153 in numher, died. March 31st, 1887, Mr. Andrews crossed female grayling with trout. Eggs straw-coloured, but not so clear as graylings when I saw them on April 6th, but they did not hatch. The difficulty of hybridizing grayling with trout milt arises from two"circumstances — first, that trout breeding in many rivers has concluded, or nearly so, prior to that of the former fish ; secondly, the size of the grayling eggs is so much smaller than those of the trout. Means of capture. — Netting similarly to that employed for trout, but generally grayling is taken by angling and employing fine tackle, and this is principally done either with ground-bait,* or gi-asshopper (sink and draw plan), or by fly fishing, remembering that they must be delicately handled as their mouths are by no means strong for retaining a hook. Although, as has been frequently observed, this fish is to a certain extent fit for eating all the year round, it is most justly protected throughout the spawning months, while during October and November, iuto the middle of January, it is in" its prime for the table. In the Test, although the Houghton Club used to open this fishing from June 1st, the fish were generally in poor condition, but ready to take almost any fly which was offered : but in July the case became different, the fish were in good condition and much more difficult to please. Still it is generally considered that September and October are the two best months for the fly-fisher, although in November they will take a fly or a bait, more especially in the middle of the day, and even with a shining sun. In the Teme the larger fish rarely take the fly, but will take the grasshopper. The grayling, although a very capricious fish, is not quite so shy as the trout nor so game when hooked, and often bores with its head up stream in order to get to' the bottom, while if baffled it turns down stream still similarly boring : a shorter line may be employed, and fishing down stream is mostly adopted. It will often rise when least expected, and when most freely taking the natural fly will frequently refuse the artificial : on other occasions it will rise several times in succession at the same fly, and, if not touched by the hook, attempts at its capture may be contiaued. If a rise occurs, the fisherman should strike gently, play his fish quietly, and land it with a net, because its mouth is tender and readily gives way. The flies employed are much the same as those for trout, but smaller as a rule, although the May-fly is not always refused. The smaller fish are generally taken on the shallows, and with the fly which is usually declined by the larger grayling. Introduced from other waters they sometimes lose their gapie character and refuse the fly. Walton says it " is very gamesome at the fly : and much simpler, and therefore bolder than a trout * * * yet he is not so general a fish as the trout, nor to me so good to eat or to angle for." The grayling, however, amongst its other eccentric habits, will sometimes, under the most adverse conditions, " come on " just for an hour or two. It may be in the forenoon, or at midday, or in the earlier hours of the cool afternoon ; and, should the weather be warm, overcast, or even drizzling, they may sometimes be taken at all hours of the day (Field, November 25th, 1884) . The largest fish are killed during October and November with the sunken fly. Fishing up-stream for grayling is, with the dry fly, a mistake. The authorities who recommend the casting of the flies across stream, and the allowing of them to sweep leisurely out (with the line, however, well in hand) and down with the current, after all give good advice, and, in the long run, we are convinced that this is the most paying way of fly-fishing for grayling. These fish herd on the shallows, and are very fond of them if they are wide and gravelly, or sandy, and well in the open ; but where the stream runs deepest in the middle there the best grayling will be found, roaming, it may be, occasionally to the sides, but sticking in the main to the centre. This is especially the case in waters like our lowland streams, that do not possess the alternations of rapid and slow currents, pools, stickles, and races, such as are found in the established grayling rivers of Yorkshire, Derby- * Mr. Pritt observed " that in the Yorkshire rivers the grayling will only take a worm well in frosty weather " (FieU, April 17th, 1886). 284 SALMONIDJE OF BRITAIN. Bhire, and Worcestershire. In these latter streams, which may be called natural grayling waters, the whereabouts of the fish may be determined upon with some certainty. Anything in the shape of a glide, before or after rough water, should not be neglected. A gravelly shelf on the edge of a swift, deep stream, is a favourite haunt of the fish. A bit of still, smooth water between two currents formed by an obstacle, and a hollow, worn by deep water out of a loamy bank, giving a lay-by in the nature of an eddy, are also places to which the fly should be introduced. But, as grayling often travel up and down and across in a slow persistent sort of fashion, no labour is lost in fishing down every bit of water ; and if it is fished down from beginning to end two or three times in succession, so much the more likelihood of finding fish, as well as of keeping the blood in circulation on a cold day (Field, October 25th, 1884). The larger fish frequent the deeper pools or sluggish portions of the stream, sometimes selecting the vicinity of the roots of a tree which juts into the water, sometimes being more in mid-water. What is termed a grasshopper in Worcester- shire, which looks like a nondescript caterpillar, with the point of the hook covered by gentles, is considered to be the best bait there and in the Shropshire and Herefordshire districts, commencing to be employed about September and the two following months on warm days succeeding frosty nights. Having a quill float and a stifiBsh rod it is worked on the sinking and drawing plan, having sunk to the bottom it is raised about a foot and allowed to sink again, while the stream should suffice to carry it on a little way with each successive jerk. In Derbyshire streams it is said not to be much of a success. The principal ground baits are fishing with gentles, worms are likewise employed.* The grayling occasionally * A correspondent of The Field (February 19th, 1887) observed how he has fished in Yorkshire streams by " swimming the worm " during the best months of the year. " The rod best adapted to the purpose is a stiffish fly rod, from 10 ft. to 12 ft. in length, fitted with upright rings ; it should not, however, be too heavy, as such a one becomes very tiring to the wrist at the concluding portion of a long day's fishing. The reel that I prefer is a plain check ebonite one, and it must be kept clean and in good working order, so that the line may run easily from it upon the first rush of a heavy fish. The line should be of tapered, waterproofed silk, say, 25 yards in length. The tackle should consist of a cast from 2^ yards to 3 yards in length, commencing with a couple of lengths of strong undrawn gut and tapering down to the same quantity of the very finest drawn; to the end of this, wrap one no. 7 fine wire round bend hook with well- waxed crimson silk, but before doing so either heat the shank of the hook in the flame of a candle and bend it slightly outwards with a pair of pliers, or else' wrap in at the top of the shank a piece of stiff hog's bristle, this arrangement being intended for the purpose of keeping up the head of the worm ; with one small shot about 4 to 6 inches above the hook, your tackle is complete, with the exception of a tiny float about the size of a hazel nut, which you adjust to your cast by means of a small quill plug, having due regard to the depth of stream. " When the angler finds that he is failing to hook fish, and that, after striking at an apparently good bite, the tail of his worm is gone, he should take off the single hook tackle and substitute for it a couple of no. 2 fly-hooks, wrapped about one-third of an inch apart ; but I only employ this tackle under the circumstances named, as in nine cases out of every ten, owing to his rolling propensities, the fish generally contrives to break off one of the hooks either in his mouth or in the meshes of the landing-net, and then you have to waste valuable time in repairing damages. In very bright, low water, I generally commence operations at the extreme tail of a pool, and fish every likely place until I come to water about one foot in depth, so, after you have fished to this point hasten to the next suitable place. In slightly coloured water the angler may fish down stream, casting across a little above him from the commencement of the swim ; if, however, snow-water be present, it is very little use to continue fishing, as grayling never take well under such circumstances. Grayling usually take the worm in a very erratic manner ; perhaps for two or three hours the angler will never have a single bite, and suddenly he will begin to catch fish almost every swim, and when he is congratulating himself upon his success, the sport ceases as suddenly as it began. My old instructor, Dick Smith, used often to say to me, ' You don't come out to save worms, my lad, but to catch fish,' and many times since then have I fully appreciated the truth of his remark, for a grayling may often be induced to take a lively red worm, when a dead one, hanging like a piece of moss on the hook, will not tempt him at all ; always, therefore, have a plentiful supply of worms with you. " In conclusion, let me again impress upon anglers the necessity of sticking to their work, if they mean to make up a good dish of grayling by the above means. Many a time, after fishing for hours without having a touch, have I felt inclined to reel up and wend my way homewards, for you cannot moon about on the bank and smoke your pipe as when in pursuit of the keen-eyed trout during the summer months ; but patience has prevailed, and perhaps in the last couple of hours in the afternoon I have made up a basket of fish to which is accorded the honour of having a red mark affixed to the account which I have subsequently entered in my angling diary." GRAYLING— LIFE HISTORY AND HABITAT. 286 may be taken with, the minnow, mostly in clear or else very slightly coloured water. During October and November dead leaves are often a great nuisance to the fly-fisher. Life history. — Those hatched in June, say 1880, do not as a rule spawn before April, 1883. These fish are rapid growers, attaining to four or five inches in length in a few months. Sir H. Davy (Salmonia, p. 188) believed that such as were hatched in May or June become nine or ten inches in length by September, and weigh from five to eight ounces. We find Mr. Willis-Bund, in his editorial note to Section 11 of the Fresh- water Fisheries Act, 1878 (see Oke's Fishery Laws, Second Edition, p. 60), writing as follows : — " This clause places grayling in an exceptional position; it absolutely prohibits the destruction of grayling, except by angling in private fisheries, during the close season. During their close season, trout or char may not be killed in any way ; but grayling may be killed during their close time by angling in private fisheries, even where they are specially preserved. As no one fishes for grayling with nets, it comes to this, that as to them the law is the same as before, and a measure passed for the encouragement of anglers does not make any provision for the fish anglers most value." Diseases. — It was formerly abundant in the Aire above Bingley, but was entirely destroyed in 1824 by the bursting of a peat bog, and subsequent attempts at reproduction have proved ineffectual (Yorkshire Vertebrata, p. 129). Mr. Francis Francis {Field, December 31st, 1881) observed that, although there are no very extreme pollutions in the Wye above Rowsley, yet both trout and grayling have perished from fungoid disease in myriads ; indeed, some years ago Rowsley Meadows were pretty nearly cleared out of grayling by it. This fungoid disease, Saprolegnia ferax, has been found afiecting them in common with trout and other forms. In Jardine's inquiry, in 1860, these fish were said to be almost gone from the Severn, where, up to four years before, they had been abundant, cleared out by disease or dredging the fords for gravel. As food. — Its flesh is white, delicate,* and in the best condition about October and November, when the trout are mostly out of season; in fact, it is not until August, or even September, that it is generally esteemed worth cooking, while it should be dressed as soon as practicable after removal from the water. It is generally boiled : large ones are said to be improved by crimping. Dr. Hamilton says, "A grayling over f lb. weight is not in condition till the end of July : those of 5 lb. to f lb. are in season all the year round." Uses. — It is stated that in Lapland a substitute for rennet used to be obtained by pressure from the entrails of the grayling, with which they converted the milk of the reindeer into cheese. Gesner asserted that "the fat of this fish, being set with a little honey a day or two in the sun, in a little glass, is very excellent against redness, or swarthiness, or anything that breeds in the eyes." Hahitat. — Lapland, Scandinavia, Germany, Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Hungary. They were introduced t into the Upper Clyde in 1855, from three dozen fish brought from Rowsley, Derbyshire, and are said to have thriven well. They have likewise been introduced in the Teviot and Tweed, and are also thriving (Brother- ston) ; one | lb. weight was taken in the Tay, April 15th, 1884, by Mr. Macpherson, a few miles below Dunkeld. In Cumberland in the Eden, Mr. Spence, Fishing * " Aldrovandus says that they be of a trout kind : and Gesner says, that in his country, which is Switzerland, he is accounted the choicest of all fish. And in Italy he is in the month of May so highly valued, that he is sold then at a much higher rate than any other fish. The French which call the Chub Un Vilain, call the Umber of the Lake Leman, Un Umble Clievalier : and they value the Umber or Grayling so highly that they say he feeds on gold, and say that many have been caught out of their famous river of Loire, out of whose bellies grains of gold have been taken" (Walton and Cotton's Angler). In olden times, in Upper Austria, this fish was greatly valued, and " at times it could only be caught for the Imperial table, for sick persons, or for pregnant women" (Carl Peyrer, United States Fish Commission Report, 1876, p. 612). t Orkneys, according to Low, it was common ; but he could not have meant this fish. 286 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. Gazette (January 30th, 1886) says that he has frequently heard chub called by that name while staying at Carlisle, and he considered that it was absent. Mr. Bewley, Land and Water (September 9th, 1886), remarked that on May 26th he returned a small one while fishing in some private water near Appleby, some 2000 fry had been put in during 1882-83 : in the Esk (Heysham) : while two examples from the Tyne, presented by Mr. Knight, are in the British Museum. In varying abun- dance in the middle waters of the Wharpe, Washburn, Nidd, Ure, and Swale ;* also in the Cover, Wiske, and Colbeck, the Rye, and other tributaries of the Upper Derwent and the Scalby Beck near Scarborough. In a limited amount in the Tees, and has been introduced into the Esk. Formerly common in the Ribble and Hodder, their extreme scarcity — if not extinction — being ascribed to the great increase of salmon (Yorkshire Vertehrata).f In Lancashire, the Ribble, in Derby- shire and Staffordshire, the Dove, the Wye, the Trent, the Blithe and the Hodder. In Shropshire, the Severn, the Teme, the Clun, the Corve and the Onny. In Merionethshire, the Dee, and in Montgomeryshire in the Vamuy and the Tanat. In Herefordshire, the Arrow, the Lug, the Dove, the Wye, and the Irwin contain them. The Windrush in Gloucestershire. J In Hampshire and Wiltshire in the Test, having been introduced from the Avon (Davy), also present in the Itchen and both the Avons. Hamilton remarked the Dove, the Derwent, the Teme, and the Trent were formerly con- sidered the grayling rivers par excellence ; but they must now give way to our southern rivers as the Avon, the Itchen, the Test. In the Kennett in Wiltshire they have also succeeded well, also in its tributary the Lambourne. The Swansea Guide stated this fish to be taken in the neighbourhood, but of this Dillwyn doubted the correctness. Mr. Harford stocked the Tivy below Lampeter with many thousand grayling, which have disappeared. In 1863, 1470 fry were placed in the Lea rather more than three miles beyond Hertford (Wix). In May, 1866, it was introduced into the Lornan at Tiverton (Parfitt). It appears also to have been introduced into the Thames. Ireland. — Rutty, 1772, observes " Thymallus, the Grayling or Umber. With us it is a sea fish, and less than Willoughby's, which is a river fish." It seems to me probable that he nxay refer to Ooregonus oxyrhynchus as I received an example as a grayling. Brown two years after Rutty (1774) enumerated the grayling : but Thompson observed that " the par has been sent to me from the south of Ireland under the name of grayling. Perhaps this name, as applied to the par, may be a corruption of the word graveling, which is generally applied to that fish in the southern counties." Pennant recorded one of 4 lb. 6 oz. from the Teme at Ludlow. Tarrell men- tioned another one of 4f lb. from the Test, and Daniel one of 5 lb. from near Shrewsbury and one of 5j lb. in the spring of 1887 was caught in a weir trap at the top of the Camlet in Shropshire. In Lapland it is said to reach to 8 or 9 lb. weight. * A correspondent in The Field (November 25th, 1882) denied the present existence of this fish in the Swale ; the British Museum possesses tour specimens reputed as from that river, received with Parnell's oolleotiou. t Mr. J. A. Busfeild, in 1880, remarked that the upper reaches of the Aire are not suited to the habits of grayling. In Gent's History of Bipon, published one hundred and fifty years ago, and containing an account of Keighley, it is stated that the Eiver Aire contained, among other fish, " Dares, gralings, perch, eeles, chub, trout, salmon, and salmon smelts." This seems conclusive evidence that in former times the Aire at Keighley contained grayling, that they have been gradually exterminated by pollution, and that the Castlefield Weir has had nothing to do with their non-existence above Keighley. Mr. Ashton observed {Field, October 11th, 1884) seventeen were taken from North Derbyshire, March 31st, 1870, averaging J lb. each, in a barrel of thirty gallons, by dog-cart to Sheffield, then by rail to Wymondham, thence by dog-cart to Fornoett St. Peter, and put into the river there. March 17th, 1871, fifteen brace from the same river, all large fish, some full of ova, and turned in at Mr. Irby's, Boyland Hall. April 17th, 1872, thirty-one brace from i to 1 lb. to Fomcett St. Peter. April 16th, 1873, twenty and a half brace, J to Forncett, and i to Boyland Hall. April, 1877, from the Wye to Oakley Park, Suffolk, for the Eye. April, 1879, fifteen brace from the Wye to the Kennett. I The Earl of Coventry placed grayling in a tributary of the river at Naunton Bridge, between 1859 and 1864, on different occasions ; they are now thriving there. INDEX. Abramis brama, 48 Aorognathus, 4 acquired monstrosities, 272 Act of 1861, 120 additional scales on par be- coming smolts, 90 adipose dorsal in par, colours of, 87 adipose fin, colour of, in trout, 172, 227, 229 adipose fin in brook trout, colours of, 202 adipose fin, rays in, 229 iElian, 1 Agassiz, 11, 13 Agassiz's trout, 152 agents affecting life in lakes, 183 age when first breed, 76, 77 Agoniates, 3 Ainsworth, Mr., 30 air-bladder, 20 air-bladder in embryo, 20 air-bladder, uses of, 20 air in water, 20 albinos among hybrids, 260, 261 Albreoht, Prof., 20 Alburnus lucidus, 48 albus, Coregonus, 47 albus, Sahno, 10, 11, 143, 149, 151, 152, 159, 166, 169, 177, 228 Alepisaurus, 3 Alestes, 2 alevin, 204 aleviuS, appearance of, 43 alevins breathing, 43 alevins, frozen, 37 alevins of salmon, 82 alevins of sahnon for stocking rivers, 106 alevins turned into streams, 44 aUer-float, 203 aUer-trout, 203 AUport, Mr., 27 alosa, Clupea, 5 alpine charr, 237 alpinus, Salmo, 7, 10, 11, 231, 232, 237, 238 alpinus, Salvelinus, 237 American char, 11, 247 American char breeding with British, 263, 264 American char breeding with Lochlevens, 260, 262 American char breeding with salmon par, 260 American char, hybridizing of, 268 American trout, 247 Ammodytes, 107, 178 anadromouB, 11 anadromous fish, 4 anadromous instinct, 50 anadromous SahnonidiBi 27 anadromous trout changing mode of life, 146 anal fin in sea trout, 170 ancestry of fish, marine, 5 ancestry of fish, freshwater, 5 Aucylus, 177, 181 Andrews, Mr., 8, 23, 29, 44, 226, viii angling for char, 234, 235, 236 angling for trout, 208 angling to continue after net- ting, 121 Annin, Mr. J., 24 apprentices fed on salmon, 112, 113, 114 arcturus, Sahno, 238 are par young salmon ? 89 argenteus, Fario, 149 argenteus, Salmo, 11, 51, 55, 105, 149 Argentina, 2, 3, 4, 9 Argyropelecus, 3 Armistead, Mr., 29 Artedi, 27 Arthur, Mr., 7, 145, 183, 187 artificial fish-breeding, vi artificial propagation of salmon, 78 artificial trout culture, 211 Ashworths, Messrs., 29, 31, 48 atmospheric changes affecting hybrids, 264, 265 atmospheric disturbances, 109 Aulolepis, 4 Aulopus, 3 auratus, Cyprinus, 7, 272 auratus, Carassius, 7 auratus, Salar, 190 ausonii, Salmo, 11, 183 Ausonius, 1 Australasia, trout in, 145 autumn migration of salmon, 66 autumn migration of smolts, 90, 91, 92 Avon and Stour, salmon of, 119 bag-net, 140 bag-nets for salmon, 124 bag-nets, Scotland, 132 baggit, 58, 98 Baione erythrogaster, 247 Baione fontinahs, 247 baits for trout, 208 Balfour, 22 Baltic, changes in fauna of, 5 Baltic, changes in water of, 5 Bandon, fisheries of, 133 barbatus, Liparis, 5 barbel, 48 barren salmon, 95 barren trout, 210 bass, 5 Beauly, fisheries of, 128 Belone, 18, 107 Belone cancila, 5 Beryx, 4 Bewick, Thomas, 112 biU, 154 bill trout, 217, 219 black-fin, 58 black fish, 55 blacknebs, 173, 203 black swan, 28 black tails, 154 black trout, 249 Blaokwater, fisheries of, 133 Blanchard, M. B., 25 blasting scaring salmon, 68 Blennius gattorugine, 44 blianag, 59 blindness in hybrids, 260, 261 bliouach, 59 blood discs, size of, 4, 9 blue-cap, 150 blue-cocks, 162 blue fin, 58 blue-poU, 150, 162 Boards of Conservators, 122 Boocius, 29, 31, 42 body, proportions of, vary, 8 Bond, E., vii bones, names of, 14, 15 Borgie, fisheries of, 130 botcher, 58 Bothriocephalus, 22, 110 botling, 203 Bourge trout, 162 box of salmon, weight of, in Tweed, 124 Bowie Evans, Mr., 281 Brachymystax, 3 brachypoma, Salmo, 11, 143, 150, 152, 169, 177 bradan, 59 bradau-firionn, 59 braec-precht, 204 Braithwaite, Mr., 240 brama, Abramis, 48 brandling, 58 branlins, 83, 84 breac, 154 bream, 48 breathing, 43 breeders selected, 26, 30 breeding affected by tempera- ture, 27 breeding affected by seasons, 27 breeding, age when occurs, 27 breeding, effects of consan- guinity on, 27 breeding of char, 234, 244, 245 breeding of fontinalis, 251 breeding of grilse, 94 breeding of Lochlevens, 228,229 288 INDEX. breeding of salmon, 76 breeding of trout, 208 breeding, period of, 24 breeding salmon retained in ponds, 30 breeding trout, pugnacious, 209 brioean, 154 brioein, 59 briU, 48 brith-dail, 161 brithyU rhestrog, 280 British and Irish Fishes, 11 British char breeding with American, 263, 264 British char breeding with fontinalis, 263, 264 British char breeding with Lochlevens, 263 burn trout, head of, 147 Burt, 112, 114, 127 oseca of brook trout, 199, 200 Cffica of trout, causes of varia- tion, 188 c8eoa of trout variable in num- ber, 188, 189 cffioa in Lochlevens, 220, 223, 224 cseeal appendages, 6, 8, 22 Cfiecal appendages in char, 233, 239 Cffioal appendages, sea trout, 157, 158, 164, 171, 177 casoal appendages in trout, 144, 148, 150, 216 cfficifer, Salmo, 190, 219 British char crossed by struans, Calif ornian trout, 48 266 British Museum Catalogue, 11 broohyn, 162 brood, 58, 83 Brook, Mt., 32 brook trout, 6, 190, 196, 203, 247 brook trout, cseca of, 199 brook trout, colours of, 200 brook trout, colours of adipose Caranx, 18 cambricus, Salmo, 6, 10, 11, 48, 143, 144, 150, 152, 153, 159, 160, 164, 168, 169, 170, 181, 182, 218, 237 oancUa, Belone, 5 candlemass fish, 162 candlemas gray, 154 Capel, C, 29 Captain Franok, 129 fin, 202 brook trout, descended from, 6 brook trout, gill-covers of, 196, 197 brook trout, fins of, 198 brook trout in brackish water, 204 brook trout in sea water, 201 brook trout, jaws of, 198 brook trout, old, head of, 147 brook trout, spots on, 202 brook trout, tail fins of, 199 brook trout, teeth on vomer, 197 brook trout, varieties of, 202 Brora, fisheries of, 129 Brown, 28 Brown-Goode, 248 brown trout, 203 Bryoinus, 2 Buckland, P., 6, 22, 28, 31, 34 buddagh, 10, 193, 194, 217 Buist, 28, 260 bull-dog deformities, 260 bull-dog deformity of trout, 203 bull-heads, 109, 212 bull-trout, 10, 11, 85, 149, 160, Carassius auratus, 7 Carassius vulgaris, 48 Carl Peyrer, 49 carp, 48 carpio, Cyprinus, 7, 48 carp, varieties of, 7 case char, 231, 232, 285, 239 Catopriou, 3 caudal fin of trout, 188 caudal fin, expansion of, 13 caudal fin, how measured, 13, 14 cawg, 58 cemyw hwyddell, 68 cephalus, Leuoiscus, 48, 161 Chalceus, 2 Chalcinus, 2 char, 6, 11, 48, 231, 237, 240 Charaoini, 2 char, American, 11 char as food, 241 char breeding, 234, 236 char, CiEca of, 233 char, causes of destruction, 243 char, colours of, 231, 248 char, dub, 245 char, forms vary, 232, 233 161, 154, 157, 161, 162, 169, char from Arctic regions, 233 172, 176, 180, 218, 254 bull-trout and sea trout, how differ, 181 bull-trout, angling for, 176 bull-trout, few spotted, 11 bull-trout, inferior fish, 179 bull-trout, Norway, 11 bull-trout, salmon, 11 bull-trout, salmon spotted, 11 buU-trout, thickly spotted, 11 bull-pinks, 58 bull-salmon, 58 buntlings, 150, 161 burbolt, 47 burn tails, 164 burn trout, 203 char, how breed destroyed, 234 char, how captured, 243, 244 char hybrids, 26, 49 char in hot-water, 20, 21 char, introduction of, 240 char, legislation for, 233, 234 char of Lochleven, 242 char, potted, 242 char, preservation of, 236 charr, 237, 240 oharr of Windermere, 237 char, scales of, 233 char, shape of, 248 char, size attains, 246 char, size of, 236 char, Southern Austria, 27 char, species of, 233 char, where captured, 233, 234 char, where found, 243 char, young, how raised, 233 Chauliodus, 3 chub, 48 clean salmon, 69, 106 cinereus, Salmo, 10 Citharinus, 2 clergy, 2 close time for salmon, 60, 120, 122, 123 close time, varied, 122 close time, Scotch, 131, 182, 133 close time, shortened, 134 close time, weekly, 121 Clupea, 47 Clupea alosa, 6 Clupea finta, 5 Clupea harengus, 5 Clupea sprattus, 108 clupeiformis, Coregonus, 47 cochivie, 154, 158 cocksper, 58 colagan, 164 Coles char, 288 colli, Salmo, 282, 238 Collins, Mr., 80 colour, 18, 19 colours of brook trout, 200, 227 colours of char, 231, 248 colour of fiesh of trout, 213, 214 colours of trout change after death, 200, 201 colours of trout varying, 186, 200, 201, 202, 225 colours in Lochlevens, 224, 226 colours in trout, 146, 214 common brook-trout, 247 compass net, 139 concussion, effect of, 41, 277 condition, month when attain to, 214, 215 eonfinis, Salmo, 47, 49 congenital monstrosities, 272, 273 Connecticut river, salmon of, 115 Coquet, salmon of, 117 Coquet, sea trout in, 180 Coquet trout, 152 coracles, 187 core, 101, 180 Coregonus, 2, 3, 6, 9, 31 Coregonus albus, 47 Coregonus clupeiformis, 47 Coregonus thymallus, 278 Coregonus oxyrhynohus, 5, 286 Coregonus pollan, 6 Coregoni, 233 Cornish trout, 192 oomubiensis, Salmo, 192, 193 Coste, M., 29, 274 Cottus gobio, 109, 212 Cottus quadricoruis, 5 Couch, 11 Couch's trout, 158 CourseU, History of Gloucester, 112 Coventry, Earl of, 286 cowring, 139 Crasspuill trout, 190, 191 INDEX. 289 crooked-tailed trout, 10 cross breeds in trout, 183 crosses of hybrids, table of, 267 cross-line fishing, 207 crows eating diseased fish, 230 cruiyes, Acts concerning, 132 cultivation of trout streams, 211, 212 Cumberland, Salmo, 218 Curimatus, 2 cutoutia, Tetrodon, 5 Cyclops, 276 Cynopotamus, 3 Cypriuus auratus, 272 Cyprinus carpio, 7, 48 Cyprinus koUarii, 48 Darwin, 50 Dareste, Camilla on monsters, 276 Day, P., 11, 26, 29, 30 Davy, Dr. J., 9, 20, 36, 40, 41 Davy on hybrids, 48 Davy, Sir H., 10, 27, 34 Davy's trout, 151 dead par used for its milt, 259 decrease of salmon, cause of, 115, 120 decreased size of artificial flies, 211, 212 decreasing length of close season, 131 Dee, Chester, Salmon of, 118 Dee, fine silk nets used by poachers, 137 Dee, fisheries of, 128 deformed trout, 203 dentex, Salmo, 183 dentition of hybrids, 270 dentition in trout, 146 depth of water for eggs, 34 descent of salmon, 74 destruction of char, 245 development of embryo, 32 De Zalm, 58 dhearg-bhlian, 240 dioecious, Salmonidae, 22 diamond scale, 54 Dipnoids, 20 disappearance of char, 241 discoverers of hybrids, 254 disease from immature parents, 78 diseases of char, 245 diseases of fontinalis, 252 diseases of salmon, 110, 111 diseases of trout, 215 Distiohodus, 2 distribution, geographical, 4 dogs assisting fishermen, 136, 137 dolachans, 191, 194 dolphin, 18 Don, Fisheries of, 128 Donovan, 10 Donovan's trout, 151 doohuUa, 26 dorsal fins of trout, Dr. M'Intosh on, 170 dorsal fin in sea trout, where commences, 170 double-yolked fowls' eggs, 273 Dover, Mr., 239 draft net, 148 draft nets increase with more fish, 134 drainage works, effects on river, 61,67 drift nets, 139 dropsy, 26 dropsy in alevins, 259 dry seasons, efiect on salmon, 68 dry seasons, netting salmon, 137 dubh-bradan, 59 ducks, 28 Dupplin hatchery, 29 Durham, cost of salmon, 117 dwarf trout, 186 Eagle-Clarke, Mr., 276 early close time, 123 early river, how become late, 61 early or late race of salmon, 65 early or late rivers can alter character, 62, 65 early or late rivers cannot alter character, 62, 65 early salmon rivers, 59, 61, 62, 65,66 ebb tide, effect on salmon, 68 eel choking trout, 213 eels, 216 eel traps, 142 eel weirs, 111 eel worrying trout, 212 eggs, 23, 24 eggs, appearance of while incu- bating, 34 eggs, artificial incubation of, 29 eggs attacked by fungus, 33 eggs, capabilities for diffusion, 41 eggs, colour of, 24 eggs, concussion, 32, 41 eggs, conveyance, 31 eggs, depth in which can be incubated, 38 eggs, depth of water in, 34 eggs, effect of cold on, 43 eggs, effects of freezing, 37, 38 eggs, effects of peat upon, 38 eggs, effects of paraffin on, 38, 39 eggs, enemies of, 28 eggs, eyed, 32 eggs, fertile from dead salmon, 78 eggs, fertilization of, 24, 28 egg-frees, 31 eggs from dead sea trout, 262 eggs from dying grilse, 258 eggs from young fish, 26 eggs, hatching retarded, 43 eggs, how imbibe gases, 39, 40 eggs, how to be unpacked, 43 eggs incubated in moss, 35, 36, 40 eggs incubated in still water, 38, 39, 40 eggs, in dry air, 41 eggs, in dry tube, 36 eggs, influence of hght on, 40 eggs in redd temporary dry, 38 eggs in salt water, 32, 36, 37 eggs kept damp, hatching, 82 eggs, milting, 24 eggs, mortality among, 28 eggs, moving of, 40 eggs, number of days incubating, 269 eggs of fontinalis, 251 eggs, offspring from, 26 eggs of hybrids, mortality among, 268 eggs of land-locked salmon, size, 105 eggs of Lochlevens, 228 eggs of salmon, covered in redds, 84 eggs of salmon, enemies of, 82 eggs of salmon, mortality if moved, 81 eggs of salmon, number given, 78 eggs of salmon, proportion hatched, 78 eggs of salmon, size of, 106 eggs of salmon, why covered over, 81 eggs of trout, 210 eggs, packing of, 42 eggs, picking of, 33 eggs retained in ovi-sao, 32 eggs sent to Antipodes, 42 eggs shaken, 32 egg shell pervious to water, 40 eggs, size of, 24, 25, 26, 37, 76, 77 eggs, some expand on extrusion, 40 eggs, travelling, 32 eggs turning white, 32 eggs under gravel, 34 eggs unimpregnated, 32, 34 eggs, whence obtainable, 29 eggs, when dead, 32 eggs when hatching, 35 eggs, wind, 32 ehoe, 2 eldrines, 203 electric disturbance, 109, 110 elvers, food for salmon, 107 embryo, development of, 32 Encyclopedia Britannica, 247 Engraulis telara, 5 enemies of young trout, 212 entering rivers, salmon, 68 eog, 2, 58 Ephemera, 34, 42, 48 Epicyrtus, 2 Epizoa, 110 eriox, Salmo, 10, 11, 143, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 159, 169 erythrogaster, Baione, 247 erythrophthalmus.Leuciscus, 48 Esk, fisheries of, 127 Esox lucius, 274 estuaries, effect of, at entrance of salmon rivers, 63 estuaries, temperature of, affect- ing migrations of salmon, 69 estuarius, Salmo, 11,146,189,19 1 estuary fishermen, 123 estuary trout, 191 Exoccetus, 18 experiments at Howietown, 254 experiments on young trout, 146 eyed ova, 32 eyes badly developed in hybrids, 261 19 290 eyes, monstrosities among, 275 Fario, 2, 9, 11 Fai'io argenteus, 149 Fario lemanus, 190, 193 Fario marsiglii, 183 Farionella, 3 fario, Salmo, 6, 11, 48, 144, 146, 169, 180, 182, 183, 187, 190, 205, 217, 219 fario, Trutta, 190, 193 Farr, Mr., 7 fat stored up in salmon, 69 ferox, Salar, 194 ferox, Salmo, 11, 148, 187, 192, 193, 194, 197, 198, 233 ferox, Trutta, 193 fertilization, dry process, 31 fertilization, how effected, 269 fertilization, moist process, 31 fertility of hybrids, 268 few-spotted bull trout, 11 iiadh-bhreao, 193 Field, vii INDEX. flesus, Pleuroneotes, 5 flounders, 5, 48, 217, 218 fluviatilis, G-obio, 12 fluviatilis, Trutta, 10 fly fishing altered of late years, 211 fly fishing for salmon, 136 flying-fish, 18 fly-nets commenced in Scot- land, 132 Fontinalis, 247 fontinalis as food, 252 fontinalis, Baione, 247 fontinalis, breeding of, 251 fontinalis breeding with British char, 203, 264 fontinalis breeding with Loch- levens, 260, 262 fontinalis breeding with Salmon par, 260 fontinalis breeding with trout, 264 fontinalis, colours of, 249, 250 fontinalis, habitat of, 253 fine-meshed nets for salmon, fontinalis, hybridizing of, 268 137 fingerius, 83 fingerUng, 58 finger-marks, 6 Finland, fishes of, 7 Finland, Lake in, 24 finnock, l64, 159 fin-rays, 12 fins, 12 fins, caudal, form of, 13 fins, characters of, 13 fins in trout, size of, 147 fins of sea trout, 157 fins of brook trout, 198 fins of Lochlevens, 223 fins of trout, 187 fins, reproduction of rays, 12 fontinalis in sea water, 249 fontinalis introduced into Brit- ain, 249 fontinalis, Salmo, 7, 10, 11, 23, 24, 25, 36, 49, 186, 202, 232, 233, 240, 245, 247, 249 fontinalis, size it attains, 253 fontinalis shy, 250, 251 fontinalis, varieties of, 249 fontinalis, water suited for, 251 fontinalis, water unsuited for, 252 food for char, 241 Fordwich trout, 10, 154, 170 Forel, fauna of Lake Leman, 183 Forelles, 2 fins, their form symptomatic of forestinus, Salmo, 190 sterility, 106 fins, use of, 13 finta, Clupea, 5 fish-culture, 29 fish, deteriorated races of, 27 fish, dropsical, 26 Fisheries, Pract. Manag. of, 29 Fisher, Mr., 29 Fishes of tlie British Isles, 11 fish hatching, 28 fish, how marked, 75, 76 fishing for char, 234, 235, 236 forket-tail, 59 fork-tails, 58 forms in char vary, 232 Forth fisheries, 125, 126 foul fish, 98 foul salmon, exported, 121 foul salmon sent to Edinburgh, 125 Fowey, salmon off late in year, 68 Francks, Captain B., 112 Francis and trout eggs, 183 fishing, misplaced energy in. 111 Francis Francis, 22, 26, 29 fishing with cross lines, 207 fish ladders, 73, 74 fish-passes, 73, 74, 121, 137 fish roe, 121 fish, temperature kept in, 36 free-gaps, 137 fresh-run salmon, 70 fresh-water fish descending to the sea, 5 Fresh-water Fishery Act, 121 fission causing monstrosities, fresh-water herring, 238 273 fixed engines, for taking salmon, 115 fixed engines nuisances, 140 Fleming, 5, 10 Fleming's trout, 151 flesh of char, its colour, 241 flesh of Lochlevens, colour of, 230 flesh of trout, colour of, 213 flesh of trout, red, 205, 206 fresh water, salmon raised in, 93 frost, 109 fry, 44, 45, 46 fry, diseases of, 46 fry, food for, 45 fry from grilse and salmon, 86 fry from pure grilse, 86, 93 fry from salmon and par, 86 fungi, parasitic, 110 fungus from overfeeding, 23 fungus on eggs, 33, 34 fungus treated by bay salt, 230 fusion causing monstrosities, 273 Gadas virens. 111 gaimardi, Salmo, 11, 144 gairdneri, Salmo, 196 gallivensis, Salmo, 11, 144, 189, 191, 198 gaUy-trout, 240, 242 game fishes, 3 Gammari, 205 Gammarus pulex, 178 gar-fish, 18 Gasteropelecus, 2 gastric juices in salmon, 107, 108 gealag-banag, 59 geal-bhreac, 154 gelly-trooh trout, 240 generation, organs of, 23 geographical distribution, 4 geological appearance, 4 Gerardin, M., on poisonous waters, 109 gerling, 58 germ origin of deformity, 272 gib-fish, 58 gillaroo, stomach of, 194, 195 gillaroo trout, 10, 11, 186, 194, 195 gill-covers affected by sex, 169 giU-covers deformed in trout, 203 gill-covers of brook trout, 196, 197 gill-covers of sea trout, 155 gill-fever, 44 gilling, 58 gilt char, 231, 232, 235, 239, 240 ginkin, 58 glacial epoch and char, 233 glas-bhreac, 59 glasgangen, 280 gleis-iad, 162 gleisiedyn, 58 Glenlyon, Lord, marking sal- mon, 129 globe-fishes, 5 gobio, Cottus, 212 Gobio fluviatilis, 12, 109 goedenii, Salmo, 149 Gonostoma, 3 gracilis, Salmo, 51, 55 gralax, 163 gravelling, 58, 161, 286 grayling, 8, 68, 278 grayling as food, 285 grayling, breeding of, 281, 282 grayling, diseases of, 285 grayling eating trout eggs, 280 grayling eggs, 282 grayling, fishing for, 283, 284 grayling, habitat of, 285, 286 grayling, habits of, 280, 283, 284 grayling, hybrids of, 282, 283 grayling injuring trout, 280 grayling, laws relating to, 285 grayling, life history of, 285 grayling, means of capture, 283 INDEX. 291 grayling, migrations of, 281 grayling, names of, 279 grayling, odour of, 279 grayling of Orkneys, 285 grayling, size of, 286 grayling, uses of, 285 Gray's char, 238 gray salmon, 151, 162, 154 gray trout, 10, 149, 172, 217 gratings to intakes of water, 121 gravel-laspring, 58 grawl, 58, 280 grayi, Salmo, 232, 238, 239 great lake trout, 11, 193 grey mullet, 5 grey salmon, 11 grey-schule, 58 grey trout, 11, 150, 151, 218 griUes, glass, 34 grilse, 87, 93, 55, 58 grilse and salmon, difference between, 94 grilse ascending rivers, 93, 94 grilse, bait for, 107 grilse bred with salmon, 88 grilse, breeding of, 77 grilse, how ascend, 71 grilse interbred, 88 grilse, rapidity of growth, 95 grilse, remarkable absence of, 72 griseus, Salmo, 10 ground trout, 276 growth of sea trout, 177 gudgeons, 109 guiniad, 3, 31 gull, great black backed. 111 gull of August, 154 Giinther, Dr., vii, 6, 11, 13, 22, 24, 25, 48, 182, 184, 218, 219, 220, 247 Giinther's trout, 152 gwiniad, 161 gwiuiad ebrill, 161 gyumothorax, Thymalus, 278 habitat of char, 245, 246 habitat of Loohlevens, 230 habitat of trout, 216 habits of char, 234, 241 habits of fontinalis, 250 half-fish, 58 half-train net, 138 half-tram net, 138 HaUadale, fisheries of, 130 halve-net fishing, 138, 139 hamatus, Salmo, 51 Hamilton, 159, 200 hang-nets, 139 hang-nets in Tyne, 118 harengus, Clupea, 5 hardinii, Salmo, 104 harvest fish, 97 harvest Peal, 162 Harvie-Brown, 48, 185, 186 hatcheries in Scotland, 29 hatching-house, 33 hatching-trays, 33, 34 head of salmon-trout, 154 head of trout, 147 hearing, 19 heat of water ,efiects on spawning fish, 77 Hemiodus, 2 hepper, 58 herling, 11, 149, 150, 154, 156, 159 herring, 5 herring sprods, 154 heterocercal tails, 13 hides for trout, 212 Highland trout, 190 high temperature of water, 109 Hippocampi, 19 Histonj of HoioietouH, 28 hog-backed trout, 277 Home Drummond Act, 127, 131 homocercal tails, 12 hoodii, Salmo, 247 hook on lower jaw of salmon, 96,97 Hope, fisheries of, 130 horse-fishes, 19 horse-mackerel, 18 house-rat, 28 Howietoun, 29, 217 Howietoun, history of, 28 Howietoun trout, 227 huoho, Salmo, 10, 149, 151 hunch-backed trout, 203 Huuingue, 29 Hunter on hybrids, 267 Huxley, Prof., 36 hybrid between trout and salmon par, 227 hybrid char, 26 hybrid char and trout, teeth in, 261 hybrid fish, 46 hybridity in salmon, 106 hybridization, 46, 47 hybridization of trout, 144 hybridizing salmon, 267, 268 hybridization of birds, 47 hybridization of horned cattle, 46 hybridization of horses and asses, 46 hybridization of quadrumana, 46 hybrids, vi, 2, 7, 48, 49, 254 hybrids in trout, 183, 184 hybrid salmon and par, 88 hybrids, breeding, 265, 267 hybrids, fertility of, 268 hybrids of fontinalis, 252 hybrids of sea trout, 176 hybrids, sexes of, 257 hybrids, suffocated, 257 hybrid trout, 144 Hydrocyon, 3 Hypomesus, 3 hypural bones, 15 ice, salmon packed in, 115 immaturity, sign of, 6, 18 incubation of fontinalis, 251, 252 incubation of salmon eggs, 82 Indian fish and fishing, 27 inherited instinct, 5 injuries caused to salmon. 111 injuries of trout, 215 Inspectors of Fisheries, British, 29 instinct, inherited, 5 intestines, valves in, 54 introduction of trout into India, 184 Inver, fisheries of, 134 Inverness, Corporation feast, 127, 128 Ireland, weekly close time, 134, 135 Irish laws, introduced into Bri- tain, 121 Irish salmon, quantity of, 133 Irish salmon Acts, 133, 134 irideus, Salmo, 19, 48, 49, 189, 196 Jackson, Mr., 7, 159 Jacobi, S., 29 Jardine, 11, 60 Jardine's trout, 152 jaw, lower, 16 jaws, abnormal, 276 jaws of brook trout, 198 jaw, upper, 16 Jenyns, 11 Jenyns' trout, 152 jerkin, 58 Johnson's trout, 151 Johnstone, Mr. D., 36 Judy, 58 Jurine, 182 kelt, 58, 96 kelts and their destruction, 97, 98 kelts and their preservation, 97 kelts as food, 113 kelts, capture of, 96 kelts descending, 74, 96 kelts, destructive, 112 kelts die, 96 kelts, is preserving them an unmixed good ? 96 kelts mending in rivers, 96, 98 kelts mending on salmon fry, 96 kelts of Lochleveus, 229 kelts, perquisites to fishermen, 96 kelts returning to rivers, 97 Kennet, fisheries of, 280, 281 kidels, 116, 120 kilhnensis, Salmo, 232, 238 kipper, 58, 96 kippered salmon, 96, 140, 141 kippers, 96, 99 knob on lower jaw of female salmon, 58 knob on lower jaw of salmon, 57 knob on lower jaw of salmon, composition of, 57 knob on lower jaw of salmon, cannot be shed, 57 knob on lower jaw of salmon, falHng off, 57 knob on lower jaw of sea trout, 172 knob on lower jaw of trout, 146, 186, 187 Knox, Dr., 11 koUarii, Cyprinus, 48 kuffer, 45 Kuhn, Professor, 46 kype on lower jaw of salmon, 96,97 292 INDEX. labels fixed to salmon, 73 Lac^p^de, 19 lacustris, Salmo, 11, 104, 148, 183, 193 laeustris, Trutta, 183 lakes at liead of rivers, effects on migration, 61, 62, 66 lake trout, 194 lammasmen, 154, 159 land-locked salmon, 24, 99, 100, 103, 104, 105 land-locked salmon, colours of, 105 land-locked salmon, how breed, 70 land-locked salmon, localities for, 105 land-locked salmon, size of eggs, 105 Larus marinus. 111 laspring, 58, 83, 85 lateral-line, 18 late salmon rivers, 59, 62, 66 laurel, 58 lave-net, 139 laws for protecting salmon, 119 law of nature, 271 laws, Scotch fishery, 125 leaders, 58 leaps of salmon, 73 leeches, enemies of fish, 46 leeches injurious to trout, 215 legalizing nets, 137 legislation on trout, 215 lemanus, Fario, 190, 193 lemanus, Salmo, 183, 219 Leopard hybrids, 262 Lepeoptheirus stromii, 110 Leporinus, 2 leprosy due to eating stale fish, 112, 113 leprosy from eating foul salmon, 98 Lereboullet on fish monsters, 274 Lerneopoda sahnonea, 110 Leuohart, 49 Leuoiscus cephalus, 48, 161 Leuciscus erythrophthalmus, 48 levenensis, Salmo, 11, 190, 198, 218, 220 licenses for taking salmon, 135 life history of brook trout, 213 life history of fontinalis, 252 Lily Mere char, 241 Limnea, 177, 181 Limnea eaten by smolts, 109 Limnea ovata, 109 lingual teeth, salmon, 54 Linnffius's trout, 151 Liparis barbatus, 5 Lisburne, Lord. 216 little grebe, 28 Livingston-Stone, 25, 27, 28, 31, 34, 37 loach, 109 local races, 7 Lochlevens bull trout, 190 Lochlevens changed by locality, 220, 225 Lochleven, changes of colour in, 145 Lochleven char, size of, 242 Lochleven fishery, 229 Lochleven lake, 218 Lochleven partially drained, 218 Lochleven restocked, 145, 218 Lochleven, stocking of, 229 Lochleven trout, 11, 12, 144, 145, 146, 190, 211, 217, 219 Lochleven trout, cjeca of, 188 Lochleven trout, maxilla in, 146 Lochlevens as food, 230 Lochlevens breeding with Ame- rican char, 260, 262 Lochlevens breeding with British char, 263 Lochlevens breeding with fon- tinalis, 260, 262 Lochlevens breeding with sal- mon, 255, 258 Lochlevens breeding with sal- mon par, 259 Lochlevens breeding with sal- mon smolts, 258, 260 Lochlevens crossed by salmon, 267 Lochlevens crossed by Struans, 266 Lochlevens crossed by Zebra hybrids, 266 Lochlevens descended from sea trout, 220 Lochlevens deteriorate to brook trout, 226 Lochlevens, food of, 219 Lochlevens, habits of, 227 Lochlevens in Gloucestershire, 226 Lochlevens, life history of, 229 Lochlevens not taking a fly, 230 Lochlevens, variety of, 227 Lochlevens, vary, 23 Loch KiUin char, 238 Lookington, 19 Loch Shin, 60 locksper, 83 locomotion, 14 lower jaw, 16 lower jaw, hook on in male salmon, 81 lower jaw of trout, knob on, 186, 187 Low's trout, 151 low temperature, cause of monsters, 275 luoidus, Alburnus, 48 Lncioperea, 47 Luciotrutta, 3 lucius, Esox, 274 McCloud river, 25 Mclvor, Mr., 225 Mclvor, introducing trout into India, 184 macks, 58 Magna Charta, on salmon weirs, 120 Maitland, Sir James, V., 28, 29, 30, 254 malformations hereditary, 271, 273 malformations, how originate, 271 Mallotus, 2, 3, 4 Malmgren, Prof. 24 maran, 2, 58 marina, Trutta, 149 marked fish recaptured, 83 marking fish, modes of, 75, 76 marking kelts, 93, 95 marking salmon, 73, 93, 95, 129 marks of trout, 151 marsilii, Salmo, 148 marsiglii, fario, 183 mathack, 59 maxilla of Lochleven trout, 146, 220, 221 maxilla of sea trout, 165 maxilla of trout, 221 maxilla, strength of, in sea trout, 169 may-fly, grubs of, 28 may-peal, 161 Meckel's cartilage, 16 Mersey, salmon of, 117 mesh, sizes for fishing, 136 miorops, Salmo, 149 micropyle in salmon eggs, 77, 106 Microstoma, 3 migrations of char, 241, 242 migrations of salmon, several yearly, 72 migrations of trout, 173, 174 Milne-Edwards, 29 milter, 58 milt of fontinalis, 251 milt of trout kept alive, 210 milt from dead fish deficient in vitality, 78 milting eggs, 24 milt kept in bottle, 255 minnow in hot water, 21 Mintern, vii mistops, Sahno, 104 Mitchell, 248 moifat-men, 58 moudie trout, 154 mongrel fish, 48 monks introducing char, 241 monks introducing grayling, 280 monsters among fishes, 273 monsters by excess of develop- ment, 272 monsters among alevins die, 272 monstrosities, 41, 271 monstrosities, divisions of, 272, 273 monstrosities, how caused, 60 moor-ged, 58 Morgan, Mr., 144 morgate, 58 mort, 68, 154, 159 Moselle, 1 mosquitoes killing char, 212 muddy water, effect on salmon, 108 Mudie, 49 mud in water, 109 muir trout, 218 mulach corrie trout, 186 mules, if breed, 49, 50 mule trout, 184 murneen, 240 muscles, 17 Musselburgh trout, 179 INDEX. 293 Mylesinus, 2 Myletes, 2 Myleus, 2 Mytilus, 23 namayoush, Salmo, 247, 249 Natural History of Ireland, 11 Naver, fisheries of, 130 Neilgherry Hills, trout on, 184, 216 NeiU, A. C. Brisbane, viii Nemaoheilus barbatula, 109 nerves, 17 Neas fisheries, 127 nests of salmon, how formed, 81 net-and-cobble, 138, 140 netting trout lakes, 212 New Zealand rivers, 4 New Zealand trout, 198 New Zealand trout, whence originated, 183 Nichols, Mr., 144 night fishing for salmon, 137 nigresceus, Salmo, 247 nigripiunis, Sabno, 11, 187, 192, 198 nobilis, Salmo, 51 North Esk, fishing in, 136 Norway bull trout, 11 nourishment affecting breeding, 70 obstructions, 137 obstructions injurious to sal- mon, 74 obstructions in rivers, 72 Odontostoma, 3 Ogden, Mr., 35, 226 ombre chevalier, 231, 240 one-eyed fish, 203 Ootacamund, trout at, 184 Ootacamund, Loohlevens at, 225 opercular pieces, 16 orange fins, 154, 177 orange markings on SalmonidEe, 143 orange stripes in sea trout, 157 oroadensis, Salmo, 11, 146, 192, 198 Orkney salmon, 192 Orkney trout, 192 Osmerus, 2, 3, 4, 9 Osmeroides, 4 Onohorhynehus, 3 Otago, 145 Otago trout, colours of, 184 Otago, trout in streams, 184 otters killing salmon, 136 oumer, 279 ova, absorption in, 31 ova destroyed by May-fly gi'ubs, 28 ova, enemies of, 28 ova, frees, 31 ova, fertilization of, 28, 47 ova, how transmitted, 32 ova of trout, 208 ova on moss, 32 ova, temperature kept in, 36 oxyrhynchus, Coregonus, 5, 286 par, 6, 11, 48, 58, 82, 83, 86, 87, 88, 109, 158, 162 par, ascending rivers, 90 parasites on salmon, 110 parasitic worms destroyed by cooking, 110 par bands, 18, 87, 177 par bands in Lochlevens, 158 par bands in Salmonidse, 171, 172, 269, 270 par bauds in sea trout, 157 par bands in trout, 186, 227 par bands modified by locality, 270 par bands, variation in number, 158 par bands varying, 172 par bands, when lost, 87 par becoming smolts, 85, 90 pars, breeding, 26 par, colours of, 6 par descending seawards, 87, 88, 89, 90 pars dying in salt water, 92 parent trout of stock to be selected, 209 par, female never give eggs, 101 par female with ripe ova, 101 par from salmon eggs, 85, 86 par head figured, 52 par, habits of, 84 Parnell, 5, 11, 22 Parnell's trout, 152 par, not related to the salmon, 83, 84, 85 Parodon, 2 par, rate of growth, 85 pars, all males, 83, 85 pars, if able to live in salt water, 92 par, marking, 87 par, teeth in vomer, 102 par, variations of size in, 89 par, various accounts of, 83 par, whether a hybrid, 82, 84, 85,86 par, young of salmon, 85 peal, 150, 167 peal, food of, 178 peal, head of, 165 peal spawn, 168 pectoral fins of trout,' 187 Peel, Mr., 144 Pennant, 5, 10, 47 Pennant's trout, 151 Penobscot salmon, 51, 105 Perca flavescens, 47 Perooglossus, 3 Percy St. John, 186 perisii, Salmo, 232, 237 Perley, 248 phinoc, 11, 149, 150, 151, 162, 154, 159, 189 phinoc, Salmo, 10, 143, 150, 152, 169 Physa fontinaUs, J.09 Piabuca, 2 Piabuoina, 2 pink, 58, 82, 87, 100, 280 Piscicola geometra, 46 Pinohon, Dom, 29 plaice, 5, 48 Planorbis, 181 Plenty, Eiver, 28 Pleuronectes flesus, 5 Pliny, 1 plumb-line fishing for char, 235, 236 podles, 111 poisoned salmon, 109 poisonous character of water, 109 poUan, Coregonus, 5 pollution of Scotch rivers, 131 ponds, size of, 29 ponds, trout in, 230 Pontoppidan, 37 pool-bound salmon, 75 Pouchet, 18 powan eater, 194 preopercle in adult salmon, 147 preopercle in Lochleven trout, 147, 220 preopercle in Salmonidse, 147 preopercle in salmon trout, 147 Prochilodus, 2 Proceedings Zoological Society, vii Pryse Pryse, Sir, 254 pug, 58 pug-peal, 161, 162 pug-salmon, 162 purpuratus, Salmo, 7, 105, 202 putchers, 139 putts, 139 puts and putchers, 68 Pygocentrus, 3 pyloric appendages, 22 pyloric casca, 21 quadricoruis, Cottus, 5 Quatrefages on fish monsters, 273 Queen's gaps, in Irish weirs, 134 quinnat, Salmo, 27, 49 rack, 204 rack-rider, 58, 204 rainbow trout, 189 rainbow trout, casca of, 189 rainfall affecting migration of salmon, 64 Eamsbottom, 31 rappii, Salmo, 183 rapidity of growth of salmon, 95 Easch, Prof., 48 Eay, 10, 47, 151 rays of tail fin in sea trout, 170 Eay's trout, 151 recruits, 97 red char, 231, 232, 239 red charre, 237 redd of grayling, 281 redd of trout, 210 redd of char, 244 redd of fontinalis, 251 redds, artificial, 43 redds of salmon, how formed, 80, 81, 99 red fish, 55 red flesh caused by food, 214 red-spotted trout, 247 red trout, 242 20 294 INDEX. red-wame, 240 respiration, 20 retrievers, 97 Eetropinna, 3, 4 Beuter, Dr. 0., 7 Kibble, salnion of, 117 Eiohardson, 13 Bichardson's trout, 152 rivers, anadromous period of, 61 Eivers, early and late, 59 river and sea trout interchange- able, 189 rivers long seasoned, 59 rivers, mode of ascent by sal- mon, 72 rivers short seasoned, 59 rivers suited for grayling, 280 roach, 48 roach injurious to trout, 215 Eoccus liueatus, 47 Eondeletius, 36 Eoosevelt, Mr. B., 47, 49 ronnal char, 245 round-tail, 154, 183 Bowland, Dr. 216 rudd, 48 runs o£ salmon in Severn, Forth, Tweed, and Shin, 70, 71 St. Hilaire, 50 St. Peter and salmon, 116 Sacramento river, sabnon of, 115 Salanx, 3 Salar, 9 Salar ausonii, 190 Salar ferox, 194 salar, Salmo, 10, 11, 24, 27, 51, 148, 153 salar, Salmo, how differs from other Salmonidse, 52 salar, origin of, 1 Salminus, 2 Salmo, 3, 9, 231 Salmo albus, 10, 11, 143, 149, 151, 152, 159, 166, 169, 177, 228 Salmo alpinus, 7, 10, 11, 231, 232, 237, 288 Salmo arcturus, 288 Salmo argenteus, 11, 51, 55, 105, 149 Salmo ausonii, 183 Salmo brachypoma, 11, 143, 150, 152, 169, 177 Salmo Cffioifer, 190, 219 Salmo cambrious, 6, 10, 11, 48, 143, 144, 150, 152, 153, 159, 160, 164, 168, 169, 170, 181, 182, 287 Salmo cinereus, 10 Salmo colli, 232, 238 Sahno confinis, 47, 49 Salmo cornubiensis, 192, 193 Salmo Cumberland, 218 salmo dying out, 6 Salmo dentex, 183 Salmo eriox, 10, 11, 143, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 159 Salmo estnarius, 11, 146, 189, 191 Salmo fario, 6, 11, 48, 144, 146, 180, 182, 183, 187, 190, 205, 217 219 Salmo ferox, 11, 148, 187, 192, 193, 194, 197, 198, 233 Salmo fontinalis, 7, 10, 11, 28, 24, 25, 49, 186, 202, 232, 233, 240, 245, 247, 249 Salmo gaimardi, 11, 144 Salmo gairdneri, 196 Salmo gallivensis, 11, 144, 189, 191, 198 Sahno glasbaoh, 162 Salmo goedenii, 149 Salmo gracilis, 51, 55 Salmo grayi, 232, 238, 239 Salmo griseus, 10, 150 Salmo hamatus, 51 Salmo hardinii, 104 Salmo hoodii, 247 Salmo hucho, 10, 149, 151 Salmo irideus, 19, 48, 49, 189, 196 Sahno killinensis, 232, 238 Salmo laoustris, 11, 104, 148, 183, 198 Salmo lemanus, 183, 219 Salmo levenensis, 11, 190, 198, 218, 220 salmon management, 247, 249 Salmo marsilii, 148 i Salmo microps, 149 Salmo mistops, 104 salmon, 10, 192 Salmona, 1 Salmonata, 149 salmonata, Trutta, 10 salmon alarmed, leave their course, 68 salmon, analyses of, 141 salmon and grilse how differ, 94 salmon and trout hybrids are migratory, 106 salmon annihilated in rivers, 115 salmon, annual breeders, 78 salmon,artifioial propagation of, 78 salmon ascending rivers for breeding, 66, 73 salmon ascending rivers on ebb tide, 68 salmon ascending rivers on flood tide, 68 salmon, ascent of, how in- fluenced, 60 salmon as food, 140 salmon as food for apprentices, 112, 113, 114 salmon, autumn migration of , 66 salmon, bait for, 107 salmon bill of Irish nationalists, 184 salmon breed alternate years, 74, 78, 79, 95, 97, 106 salmon breed, every third year, 78 salmon breed in first year, 84 salmon, breeding of, 76, 77, 78 salmon breeding with Loch- levens, 255, 258 salmon breed in salt water, 99 salmon breed once in lifetime,78 salmon breed without going to the sea, 99, 101, 102 salmon, brown, 109 salmon buU trout, 11 salmon, causes of destruction among, 109, 110, 111 salmon olean,asoending river, 69 salmon, close time, 60 salmon, colours of, 54, 144 salmon, cost of, 112, 118, 114 salmon crossed by Loohlevens, 267 salmon cured, 140 salmond, 217 salmon, decrease of, 115 salmon descending rivers, 74 salmon deteriorate in fresh water, 5, 6 salmon detained in fresh water, 100, 101, 102 salmon disease, 123 salmon, differences in size, 56 salmon do descend rivers, 74 salmon do not descend rivers, 74 salmon, do they spawn in the sea, 36 salmon, differences in weight,55 salmon driven away by sea trout, 67 sahnon dying out of a river, 67 Salmones, 2, 9, 10, 11, 186 salmonea, Lerneopoda, 110 salmon, early race, 57 salmon eggs fertilized before extrusion, 77 salmon eggs, micropyle in, 77 salmon eggs fertilized by smolts, 84 salmon eggs not hatch in salt water, 59 salmon eggs, number of, 78 salmon eggs, weight of, 78 salmon exterminated, 2 salmon exterminated in rivers, 112 salmon, feeding in fresh waters, 108 salmon, fins of, 54 salmon fisheries of Scotland, tenure of, 130 salmon fisheries, forces at work in, 119 salmon fisheries in Thames, 116 salmon fisheries, Irish, 133 salmon, food of, 100, 107 salmon-fry, 58, 83 salmon-fry, migrations of, 84 salmon-fry, penalty for taking, 83 salmon, growth of, 84 salmon, habits of, 59 salmon, homing instinct, 66, 67 salmon, how enter rivers, 68 salmon, how land-locked, 5 salmon, how nourishedinrivers, 69 salmon hybrids, 49, 83 Salmonidie, 4 Salmonidffi, ancestry of, 4 Salmonidee, migrations of, 4 salmon impounded, 30 salmon, is the quantity decreas- ing, 112, 116 INDEX. 295 salmon, its habitat, 141 salmon kitted, 114 salmon, knob on lower jaw, 57 salmon, land-locked, 6 salmon, laws respecting, 119 salmon leaps, 73, 128 salmon legislation ruinous, 133, 134 salmon, lingual teeth, 54 salmon, local breeds of, 56 salmon, local races of, 56 salmon, marking of, 129 salmon, means of capture, 135 salmon migrating from tidal to fresh water, 69 salmon migrating, sexes dis- tinct, 73 salmon migrating up rivers, 66, 68 salmon, migrations of, 59 salmon, netting in dry seasons, 137 salmon never revert to infantile food, 70 Salmo nigrescens, 247 salmon, night fishing for, 137 Salmo nigripinuis, 11, 187, 192, 198 Salmo nobilis, 51 salmon, oil in, 141 sahnon, old male, head, 52 salmon, origin of term, 2 salmon parasites, 59, 110 salmon par in salt water, 185 sahnon par breeding with Ame- rican char, 260 salmon par breeding with fonti- nalis, 260 salmon par breeding with Loch- levens, 259 salmon peal, 10, 58, 87 salmon, pool-bound, 75 salmon, rapidity of growth, 95 salmon, rate of progress ascend- ing rivers, 78 salmon retained in fresh water, 99 salmon rivers, 2 salmon rivers, stock in, 119 salmon rivers, their preserva- tion, 123 salmon, salted, 114, 115 salmon, scales of, 54 salmon-scurf, 154 salmon, sexual distinctions, 57 salmon shoals coasting, 66 salmon, size captured, 141, 142 salmon-smelt, 83 salmon smolt, 36, 59 salmon smolts breeding with Lochlevens, 258, 260 salmon spawn every third year, 65 salmon spawning time altered, 63 salmon spawn on alternate years, 65 salmon spawn on consecutive seasons, 64 salmon-spring, 58 salmon-spotted bull trout, 11 salmon, statistics of, 112, 117, 118 salmon strikes, 58 salmon, supply limited, 115 salmon, tail fins at various ages, 53 salmon taken trolling, 108 salmon, temperature of, 9 salmon, term for bull trout, 67 salmon, their limits of repro- duction, 106 salmon-trout, 11, 149, 150, 151, 154 salmon-trout a hybrid, 154 salmon-trout from Teith, 155 salmon-trout, head of, 154 salmon-trout, tail fin of, 156 salmon, teeth of, 53 salmon -trout, teeth on vomer, 156 salmon, unclean, 98 salmon, unseasonable, 98 salmon, value to rod fishers, 112 sahnon, varieties of, 55, 56 salmon, where found, 141 salmon, who obtain them, 112 salmon, with three heads, 55 Salmo oroadensis, 11, 146, 192, 198 Salmo perisii, 232, 237 Sahno phinoc, 10, 143, 150, 152, 169 Salmo purpuratus, 7, 105, 202 Salmo quinnat, 27, 49 Salmo rappii, 183 Salmo salar, 10, 11, 24, 27, 51, 143, 153 Salmo salmo, 51 Salmo salmulus, 10, 51, 86, 91 Sahno salvelinus, 231, 232, 237, 239 Salmo stomachicus, 11, 195,198 Salmo struanensis, 232, 238, 239 Salmo taurina, 190 Salmo taurinus, 218 Sahno thymaUus, 278 Salmo thymus, 278 Salmo trutta, 6, 10, 11, 104, 143, 144, 146, 149, 151, 152, 158, 159, 162, 167, 168, 169, 182, 190 Salmo truttula, 149 Salmo umbla, 231, 232, 237, 238, 239 Salmo variabilis, 188 Salmo venernensis, 51, 104, 148 Salmo willoughbii, 232, 238, 239 salmulus, 10 salmulus, Salmo, 10, 51, 83, 86, 91 salters, 250, 252 salt water and salmon par, 185 salt water, bred in by salmon, 99 saltwaterfatal to salmon eggs, 80 salt water, salmon eggs in, 79, 80 salt water, sea trout eggs in, 79 Salvelini, 6, 9, 11 Salvelinus alpinus, 237 salvehnus, Salmo, 231, 232, 237, 239 samlet, 10, 11, 58, 88, 99 samlets if hybrids, 86 samsons, 91 sand-eels, bait for salmon, 140 saprolegnia attacking grayling, 285 Saprolegnia ferax, 33, 97, 103, 110, 111 Saprolegnia ferax, Murray on, 111 saumon, 58 Saurida, 8 Saurus, 8 scagger, 86 scale, diamond, 54 scales, 18 scales of char, 233, 240 scales of Salmonidse, 271 scales of trout, 199 scales reproduced, 18 sceota, 204 schiffermuUeri, Trutta, 183 school peal, 162 Scope, 48 Scopelus, 3 Scotch, crown rights to salmon, 130 Scotch fishery laws, 125 Scotch, free passage for salmon, 131 Scotch salmon fisheries, 124 Scotch salmon laws, 130, 131 scurf, 149, 151, 152, 154, 158 scurf, head of, 158 scurf, tail fin of, 156 Bcurve, 154 sea fish becoming residents of fresh water, 5 sea and fresh-water trout one species, 143 sea, salmon forced to spawn in, 79 sea, salmon not spawn in, 79 season of char, 242 sea trout, 10, 11, 143, 150 sea trout and bull trout, how differ, 181 sea trout and fresh- water trout, varieties of one species, 182 sea trout, angling for, 175 sea trout as food, 179 sea trout breeding, 175, 176, 177 sea trout, close season sus- pended, 180 sea trout, colours of, 157 sea trout, diseases of, 180 sea trout driving out salmon, 67 ■ sea trout, eggs incubated, 146 sea trout, food of, 178, 179 sea trout, growth of, 178 sea trout, habitat, 180 sea trout, habits of, 178 sea trout, hatched at Howietoun, 146 sea trout in fresh water, 143 sea trout, land-locked, 190 sea trout, legislation for, 180 sea trout, life history of, 177 sea trout, means of capture, 175 sea trout migrating, 178 sea trout, migrations of, 173, 174 sea trout, names of, 154 sea trout. Northern race, 149 sea trout passing [into fresh- water species, 182 296 INDEX. sea trout, some yonng not migratory, 177 sea trout, Southern race, 150, 160 sea trout, tail fins of, 150 sea trout, variations of colour in, 171 sea trout, varieties of, 172 sea trout, young of, 177 sea trout, Welsii names of, 162 Sebago salmon, 51 segregation of fishes, 30 seine nets, 138 Serrasalmus, 2 Serres on fish monsters, 273 Seth Green, 35, 36 set nets, 139 Severn, river, 28 Severn, salmon of, 118 sewin, 10, 11, 143, 144, 150, 151, 152, 161, 162, 176 sev?in, habits of, 164 sewin, head of, 160 sewin hybrids, 48, 144 sewin in shoals, 176 sewin selecting rivers, 174 sewin, tail fins of, 163 sewin, teeth on vomer of, 163 sexual distinctions, sea trout, 172 shad, 5 Shannon, fisheries of, 135 Shaw, 29, 31, 48, 158 shed, 58 shedder, 58 sheets, 279 shiags, 58 Shin, captures of grilse in, 94, 95 Shin, captures of salmon in, 94, 95 shot, 204, 279, 280 shrimps for salmon fishing, 136 shntts, 279 Sibbald, Sir E., 217 Sibbald's trout, 151 sil-bodiam, 162 silver-grays, 154 silver-whites, 154 silvery coat in SalmonidEE, 220 silver char, 235, 239 silvery fontinalis, 249 silvery livery of smolts, 90 silvery trout, 190, 191, 195, 201 simen, 58 Sim, Mr. G., on trout caeca, 188 simple monsters, 276 size of Loehlevens, 230 skegger, 68, 83, 99 skegger trout, 83 skeleton, 14, 15 skeriing, 58, 83, 84, 118 skin, 18 skull, 16 slats, 58, 96 sluggish water, effects of, 35 small meshed nets, 120 smell, 19 smelt, 3, 5, 58, 159 smelt-sprods, 154 Smith, Dr. F. A., 237 smolt, 58, 87, 90, 102 smolts, autumn migration of, 90, 91, 92 smolts, odours of, 55 smolts, descending seawards, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92 smolt eggs fecundated, 103 smolt eggs milted from pars, 103 smolt eggs milted from trout, 103 smolts, how descend rivers, 74 smolts, killing of, laws, 131 smolts in sea water, 90 smolts, large, 26 smolts migrating, 93 smolts reascend as grilse, 92 smolts taken in November, 133 smolt with ova, 102, 103 smouts, 83 snow-fed rivers, effects on migration, 61 snow water, effects on salmon spawning, 64 soles, 5 Solway, fixed engines in, illegal, 132 Solway migratory trout, 11 Solway, salmon of, 117 sparling, 58 spawn, 23, 68, 162 spawning affected by nourish- ment, 70 spawning die after, sahnon, 96 spawning grounds for salmon, 80 spawning, how artificially done, 30, 31 spawning of salmon, 77, 81 spawning salmon, too many in river, 133 spawning time of salmon, 61, 62, 64 spawning time changed in rivers, 61, 62 spawning trap for trout, 30 spearing salmon, 136 species, 7 species, utility of knowledge of, 50 speckled trout, 247 spermatozoa, 23 spermatozoon deformed, 272, 273 Spey, fisheries of, 128, 129 spines affected, 277 splash nets for bull trout, 181 spotted troutlet, 247 sprag, 58 spraid, 59 sprats, 58 spring-run fish, 96 spring tides affect salmon mi- grating, 72 sprods, 58, 150, 154, 159 sprod, angling for, 175 sprod, flesh of, 159 stage nets, 139 stake nets, 140 stake nets commenced in Scot- land, 182 stake nets for salmon, 124 sterile trout, 144, 210 sterility of eggs due to imma- ture parents, 78 sterility of salmon, 106 sterility from deficiency of food, 70 Stoddart, 159 stomachicus, Salmo, 11, 195, 198 stomach of giUaroo, 194 stomach of salmon empty, 107 stomach of trout thickened, 189 stomach thickened in trout, 203 stop-net, 139 Stormontfield ponds, 29, 127 stilling, 138 streamer, 58 stocking with young fish, 45 stromii, Lepeoptheirus, 110 struanensis, Salmo, 232, 238, 239 Struans crossed by British char, 266 Struans crossed by Loehlevens, 266 Struans crossed by Struans, 265 Struan hybrids, 268, 264 sturgeon, 141 sucker, 5 summer-cock, 58 Sutherlandshire salmon fish- eries, 129 Swaledale trout, 195 sweep-nets, 188 Sweden, breeding of Salmonida, 27 swim-bladder, 20 tadpoles, 37 tail-fin affected, 277 tail-fins of brook trout, 199 tail-less trout, 203 tails, heteroceroal, 13 tails, homocercal, 12 tails of Loehlevens, 222 Talitrus locusta, 178 tapeworms, 110 tarr-dhearg, 240 Tasmania, 7 Tasmania, trout for, 22, 27, 28 taste, 19 taurina, Salmo, 190 taurina, Trutta, 180 taurinus, Salmo, 218 Tay, fisheries, 126 Tay Navigation Act, effects of, 127 Tay, river, 29 tecon, 68, 88 teeth in Saltponidte, 21 teeth nearly absent in a trout, 203 teeth of Loehlevens, 222, 223 teeth of trout, 155 teeth, vomerine, 6, 10 Teifi, river, 216 telara, BngrauUs, 5 temperature and food, how con- nected, 68 temperature for incubation, 35 temperature of rivers affecting time of migration, 63, 64, 68 temperature of salmon, 9 tench, 48 Tetragonopterus, 2 Tetrodon cutcutia, 5 Thaleichthys, 3 INDEX. 297 Thames, salmon of, 116 thickly spotted hull trout, 11 thirst, 17 Thomas, Mr., 225 Thompson, 11 Thompson on monstrosities, 271 Thompson's trout, 152 three heads on salinon, 55 Thurso, fisheries of, 130 ThymaUus, 1, 2, 9, 19, 278, 279 thymallus, Coregonus, 278 Thymalus gymnothorax, 278 Thymallus vexillifer, 278 ThymaUus vulgaris, 278 thymallus, Salmo, 278 Thyme-like odour, 1 thymus, Salmo, 278 tidal influence, salmon spawn- ing within, 79 tides spring, affect salmon mi- grating, 72 Tinea vulgaris, 48 tobbs, 161 Tometes, 2 torgooh, 231, 237, 240 Totness weir, 179 touch, 18 travelling, preparing fish for, 45 trays, hatching, 32 triotht, 204 troughs, 167 trout, 10, 47, 143 trout alevins, colours of, 210 trout almost toothless, 203 trout annual spawners, 209 trout artificiaHy fed, 206 trout as food, 213 trout becoming sterile, 144 trout breeding, 208, 209, 210 trout, brook, habits of, 204 trout, brook, food of, 204, 205, 206, 207 trout, csecal appendages in, 148, 188 trout, caudal fin in, 146 trout, colours of, vi, 144, 147, 185, 186, 201, 202 trout, colour of flesh, 179 trout, colours variable, 182 trout, crooked backs, 203 trout culture, 29 trout, deformed race, 203 trout, divisions of, v, vi trout, domesticated, 28 trout eat grayling ova, 207 trout eggs sent to Otago, 183 trout estuary, 191 trout, Fordwioh, 170 trout, forms of in fresh water, 189 trout, -fresh-water, 190 trout, fresh-water, colours sil- very, 185 trout from Irish lochs, 299 trout from New Zealand, 198 trout, great lake, 11 trout, half annual spawners, 209 trout hatching by Jacobi, 208 trout, how ascend rivers, 71 trout hybrids, 49, 144 trout in hot water, 20, 21 trout, increase in size, 184 trout in mountain streams, 213 trout in sea water, 185 trout in spawn in June, 209 trout, instinct in, 213 trout in Tasmania, 144 trout in thunderstorms, 204 trout, knob on lower jaw, 186, 187 trout, local races of, 182 trout, Loohleven, 8, 217 trout, long-lived fish, 213 trout, many local races, 143 trout, modes of capture, 207 trout, par bands in, 210 trout-peal, 162 trout, pectoral fins of, 187 trout, races crossed, 189 trout, races of, vi trout, scales of, 199 trout, silvery colour, 144, 145, 201 trout, smolt stage in, 145 trout spawning in ponds, 209 trout uneasy at breeding time, 228, 229 trout, varieties of, 185 trout, vertebrae of, 189 trout with deformed gill-covers, 203 trout with one eye, 203 trout without tails, 203 trout yellow from the sea, 191 trow, 138 truff, 150, 161, 166, 167, 168 truff, head of, 166 truff, tail fin of, 156, 163 truht, 204 tmites, 2 Truttse, 2, 9, 11 Trutta fario, 190, 193 Trutta ferox, 193 Trutta fluviatilis, 10, 190 Trutta laoustris, 183 Trutta marina, 149 trutta, Salmo, 6, 10, 11, 104, 143, 144, 146, 149, 151, 152, 158, 159, 162, 167, 168, 169, 182, 190 trutta, Salmo, colours of, 55 Trutta salmonata, 10, 149 Trutta schiffermujleri, 183 Trutta taurina, 180 trutta, Trutta, 149 truttula, Salmo, 149 turbot, 5, 48 Turton, 10 Turton's trout, 151 twbbyn, 161 twb-y-dail, 161 twbs, 161 Tweed Act, 132 Tweed fisheries, 125 Tweed salmon fisheries, 114 Tweed Salmonida, 146 Tyne, salmon of, 117 Tyrer, Mr., 35 umber, 280 umbla, Salmo, 237, 238, 239, 231, 232 unclean salmon, 98 unimpregnated eggs, 260 unseasonable salmon, 98 unspawned salmon, 98, 99 upper jaw, 16 upper proprietors get few sal- mon, 124 urbhreao, 59 urinary organs, 22 Usk, 118, 119 Usk become an earlier river, 120 Usk, how become an earlier river, 63 Usk not become an earlier river, 118, 120 Valentin on causes of monsters, 275 value of Scotch salmon fish- eries, 124 Valvata piscinalis, 109 valves of intestines, 22, 54 Van Biemen's Land, 42 variabilis, Salmo, 183 varieties, 7 varieties of sea trout, 172 venison of the waters, 213 venemensis, Salmo, 51, 104, 148 vertebrae, 15 vertebras may vary in number, 16 vertebrae, number of, 8 vertebra of sea trout, 172 vertebriB of char, 233 vertebra of trout, 189 vexillifer, Thymallus, 278 Vogt, 22, 39, 40 vole, 28 vomerine teeth, 6 vomerine teeth falling out, 147 vomerine teeth in brook trout, 197 vomerine teeth in sea trout, 160, 162 vomerine teeth in trout, 146, 147, 155, 156 Vrasski, 31 Vrolik on monstrosities, 271, 275 vulgaris, Carassius, 48 vulgaris, Thymallus, 278 vulgaris, Tinea, 48 Warkworth trout, 152 water crossing weirs, 121 water fatal to milt or ova, 210 water for incubation, 32 water, high temperature of, 109 water, muddy, 109 water ouzel, 28 water, pollutions of, 39 water rat, 28 water, poisonous character, 109 water thyme, 279 water when heated, effects of, 20 weirs, 137, 138, 140 weirs illegal, 120 weirs in Magna Charta, 120 weirs, Ireland, 133 Wenern salmon, 104, 105 298 INDEX. Wenern, Lake of, 5 West char, 237 Wethered, Mr., 39, 277, 282 White, 11 white-fish, 150, 162, 167, 168 white-fish, head of, 165 white-fish, tail fin of, 163 white salmon, 10 white trout, 11, 149, 150, 151, 154, 165, 249 White's trout, 152 whitelings, 159 whiting, 154, 159 whithng, 85, 149, 150, 152, 154, 166, 159, 189 whitling, head of, 159 whitling, series of, 159 whitling, tail fin of, 156 whitling, teeth on vomer, 156 Widegren, 13 Widegreu's trout, 152, 158 wild thyme, 279 Wilmot, Mr., 30 Willis-Bund, viii willoughbii, Salmo, 232, 238, 239 Willoughby, 10, 19, 47, 48 Willoughby's oharr, 238 Willoughby's trout, 151 Windermere char, 237 Windermere char introduced, 241 Wye, salmon of, 118 Xyphorhyuchus, 3 Xyphostoma, 3 Yare, 140 Yarrell, 11, 29 Yarrell's trout, 152 yearling trout, 213 yellow fins, 154, 177 yellow trout in estuaries, 191 yellow trout, young of, 177 Youl and trout eggs, 183 Youl, Mr., experiments by, 42 Young, Andrew, 29, 48 young trout, food of, 211, 212 Zebra hybrids, 260, 262 Zebra hybrids crossed by Looh- levens, 266 Zebras, 266 Zoological Record, 6 zoosperms, 23 ERRATA. 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