HYMN XVIII. CAN man, O God! the tale of man repeat, The past amid thy light is seen again. Ah! little sphere of rosy childhood's hour, Bewildering, cloudy dawn! then pass from view What gropings blind to leave the common way! A fiendish foe and helpless victim dwell. Oh, gorgeous dreams, and wing-borne flight of youth! That like a beast pursued before us flies; Abounding pictures, bright with morn and joy, Fair visions all! and, 'mid the train of things, So forward roll the years with woe and bliss, But sick'ning hours, and weariness of breath, And thus, by inward act and outward led, That speck, O Father! still to thee was dear- Now all confusion spent, and battles o'er, SHAW ON SALMON FRY. READER, what is a parr? This is the only interrogatory we ever had the honour to address to Lord Brougham, and we believe it is the only one ever put to his lordship, either by ourselves or any body else, which he was unable to answer. If the reader has not yet made up his mind on this important point, we shall not press him for an instantaneous reply; but in case he should be sufficiently candid from the commencement to confess that he knows nothing whatever of the subject, we then beg to introduce him to our friend Mr John Shaw of Drumlanrig, who will speedily tell him all about it. It is, indeed, both gratifying and instructive to find, that in many departments, alike of art and nature, important discoveries are not seldom achieved by men who make no pretension to philosophical skill or scientific knowledge, but who, following the bent of a sagacious and observant disposition, attain to the root of a matter, while others have been only playing with stray leaves, or stumbling over broken branches. It is gratifying, in as far as it shows, that, in natural history especially, a fair field for original research is still open to good powers of observation, even in reference to native productions of the highest value and importance; and it is instructive to those professing a more pedantic knowledge, to be forced to admit how ignorant they may actually be, in spite of all their book-learning. Our innumerable readers need not to be told that the salmon is the most valuable of all the fishes which ever sojourn in our river waters; but they do require to be informed, and we therefore take the earliest opportunity of doing so, that our knowledge of its natural history and habits of life, so far as concerns the first two seasons of its existence, and during which it may be said to be continuously within our daily vision, was only ly determinately ascertained a few months ago. It has been the food of millions from the earliest periods of our own recorded history; its capture occupies the time and rewards the toil of many thousands of our most industrious population; its sale affords a princely addition to the income both of lords and commons; the luxury of sumptuous life is incomplete when wanting a supply of this most "dayntous fisshe:" and yet almost all that has ever been said or written on the subject of its earlier existence, is founded on the grossest error. It is our intention to present a brief summary of the experimental observations and discoveries of the ingenious enquirer whose contributions are named below; but as there exists a tendency in human nature of a very reprehensible kind, which leads alike to the decrying of discoveries when these are made, and to the denial of their claim to the character of novelty, we shall, in the first place, with a view both to the historical illustration of the point in question, and the prevention of malice prepense, state the hitherto prevailing views of scientific authors on the subject of salmon fry. Should any one deem this to be a matter of slight importance, let him consider that if the salmon itself, in its matured condition, is a noble creature, of vast value in an economical point of view, and if the best mode of effecting its early conservation and future increase ought therefore to besedulously sought after, no enquiry regarding its youthful history, which results in truth, can be otherwise than interesting. We shall not attempt to trace the history of opinion regarding parr up to the time of Adam or even of Aristotle, neither of whom, so far as we know, was particularly conversant with the subject; but we may mention that in the year 1686, a gentleman of the name of Ray, one John Ray, among the earliest, and in truth the greatest of the naturalists this country has as yet produced, published, in conjunction with his friend Willughby, a work on fishes.* An Account of some Experiments and Observations on the Parr, and on the Ova of the Salmon, proving the Parr to be the Young of the Salmon. By Mr John Shaw. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for July 1836, vol. xxi. p. 99. Experiments on the Development and Growth of the Fry of the Salmon, from the Exclusion of the Ovum to the Age of Six Months. By Mr John Shaw. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for January 1838, vol. xxiv. p. 165. Account of Experimental Observations on the Development and Growth of Salmon Fry, from the Exclusion of the Ova to the Age of Two Years. By Mr John Shaw. (Read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, on 16th December 1839.) Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xiv. Part II. (1840.) " In the joint production just alluded to, there is first a description of the salmon, and then of a small but distinct species resembling the river trout, and which these authors properly regard as identical with the branlin of the north of England; in other words, the parr. The paragraph is headed (we regret being obliged, while engaged with a popular and important subject, to refer to one of the unknown tongues,)-Salmulus, Herefordiæ Samlet dictus, Branlino D. Johnson inferius descripto, ut nobis videtur, idem. Quem demissi longitudine erat septunciali; sescunciali latitudine: et raro capiuntur majores," &c. "Hujus generis," he adds, " omnes (quod mirum) mares esse aiunt. Truttæ persimilis est, ab ea tamen specie differre videtur." We have next an enumeration of Pisces fluviatiles et anadromi è genere truttaceo in Septentrionalibus Angliæ observati à D. Johnson; in the course of which the branlin, above referred to, is described in more detail, and some very remarkable peculiarities in its sexual habits are particularized, as follows: "Branlins, nonnullis fingerins, i. e. digitales, dicti, quia notas seu areolas transversas nigricantes quinque aut sex, veluti tot digitorum vestigia impressa, in lateribus obtinent, cum macula rubra in unaquaque areola. Caudæ sunt forcipatæ, salmonum ritu; quodque mirum est, omnes mares. Cum salmonibus, procreandi causa, misceri eos mihi persuasum est. (He is a perfect Shaw!) Quum primum enim salmo ovorum editorum congeriem seu acervum malis dicere, relinquit, branlinus (oh, fie!) mox ei incumbit, ovaque (ut verisimile est) spermate suo irrigat et fœcundat; nec alibi unquam inveniuntur branlini quam iis in locis quæ salmones frequentant. Quod ad mare descendant non ausim affirmare, * De Historia Piscium. Oxon: 1686, + " Salmo Omnium Autorum," p. 189. § Ibid. p. 193. siquidem quovis anni tempore apud nos inveniuntur. Fluentis rapidissimis acerrimisque versantur, in quibus nullum aliud genus piscis durare potest. Cum adoleverint sex circitur digitos longitudine æquant." § The considerate reader will please to bear in mind a few of the above expressions, that he may afterwards mark the curious coincidence of Mr Shaw's observations regarding the spawning of the male parr, the precedence of Messrs Willughby and Ray in no way diminishing the merits of that sagacious person, who, amid many more important avocations, can scarcely be supposed to have ever taken cognizance of a now obscure Latin folio, published above a century and a half ago. We proceed to pick out a few more opinions regarding the extremely rapid growth of salmon smolts, and their supposed distinctive nature from the parr. Dr Arthur Young informs us, when describing the salmon-spawning in certain rivers which run into the Ban, that "young salmon are called grawls, and grow at a rate which I should suppose scarce any fish commonly known equals; for within the year some of them will come to sixteen and eighteen pounds, but in general ten or twelve pounds. Such as escape the first year's fishing are salmon, and at two years old will generally weigh twenty to twenty-five pounds." || "About the latter end of March," ob. serves Mr Pennant, "the spawn begins to exclude the young, which gradually increase to the length of four or five inches, and are then called smolts or smoults. About the beginning of May the river is full of them it seems to be all alive-and there is no having an idea of their numbers without seeing them; but a seasonable flood then hurries them all to the sea, scarce any or very few of them being left in the river." It is indeed true, as expressed by an ancient couplet, that "Floods in May Carry smolts away," but nothing is less authentic than the entire history of the early life and ad ‡ Ibid. p. 192. Tour in Ireland, 1776. British Zoology, Vol. III. He alludes specially to the river Tweed. He gained most of his information from a Mr Potts of Berwick. ventures of salmon fry, as given by Pennant, although it accords with, and indeed may be taken as a fair sample of the stuff with which most zoological books are crammed. "About the middle of June," he continues, "the earliest of the fry begin to drop, as it were, again into the river from the sea, at that time about twelve, fourteen, or sixteen inches in length; and, by a gradual progress, increase in number and size till about the end of July, which is at Berwick termed the grilse time (the name given to the fish at that age). At the end of July, or the beginning of August, they lessen in numbers, but increase in sizesome being six, seven, eight, or nine pounds weight. This appears to be a surprising growth; yet we have received from a gentleman at Warrington an instance still more so. A salmon weighing seven pounds three quarters, taken on the seventh of February, being marked with scissars on the back, fin, and tail, and turned into the river, was again taken on the seventeenth of the following March, and then found to weigh seventeen pounds and ahalf." An increase of ten pounds in less than six weeks! Pretty well, Mr Snip. We regret being unable to believe this fact, although we doubt not that both Mr Pennant and "the gentleman at Warrington" (Reader, he was a tailor) believed it firmly. The parr is described by Mr Pennant as a distinct species, under the name of samlet. He denies that it is the young of the salmon for the following reasons:-1st, It is well known (he supposes), that salmon fry never continue in fresh water the whole year, but vanish on the occurrence of the first vernal floods, which sweep them all into the sea. 2d, The growth of salmon fry is so sudden as soon to exceed the size of the largest samlet. Mr P. then mentions as an "example," (of what?-his own statements on the subject?) that the fry which have quitted the fresh water in spring not larger than gudgeons, return to it again "a foot or more in length," and he then adds other reasons in support of his opinion, all of which we now know to be entirely erroneous, and none of which we need therefore here detail. We shall merely add, that Pennant's views are adopted by Dr Shaw, who describes Salmo salmulus as a distinct species, adding that "it is very frequent in the rivers of Scotland, where it is called the parr."* Let us pass over a few years, and respectfully approach those from whom we might have looked for better things. Baron Cuvier enumerates the parr (or samlet of Pennant) among the other Salmonidæ. " Il y a aussi dans nos rivières une petite truite, le samlet des Anglais-le saumoneau du Rhin (Penn. Zool. Brit. III., Pl. 59, 1), que plusieurs croient distincte; le verdâtre du dos forme, avec le blanc du ventre, des zigzags dans aucun desquels est une tache rouge. C'est un petit poisson délicieux." † Dr Fleming, in his British Animals, allows the name of parr to dwell in dark oblivion; but the following are his views regarding the growth and migration of salmon fry. "The roe becomes perfect, and the young fry, samlets, or smolts (smouts), make their appearance in March or April. When the samlets leave the gravel, where the spawn from which they issued had been deposited, they begin to move downwards to the sea. their progress through the river, and until they reach that point where the frith begins (or where the tide is always either ebbing or flowing), they crowd together, and descend in the easy water at the margin."‡ In Dr Knox, in an ingenious paper read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1833, has favoured us with his views of salmon smolts, and he opens that section of his subject with the following proem. " Many excellent observers have described, with more or less accuracy, the generation of the salmon, the growth and progress of the smolt, and the descent of the kelt or spawned fish to the ocean; but I know of no continued series of observations on the subject, published by any one, of an authentic nature, and so as to admit of no doubt. To remove this chasm, and to give to * General Zoology, Vol. V. p. 57. (1804.) † Règne Animal, Tom. II. p. 305. (1817.) The same sentiments are repeated verbatim, in the second edition of 1829. ‡ Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Vol. X. p. 376. (1824.). |