ggs are fecundated by the male Smolts; and they allege, in
support of this opinion, that a female got up one season and
spawned, and though no male was seen near her her eggs were
prolific. I mention this, although I apprehend it is evidence
which the unbeliever will consider inadmissible, for though no
male was seen, still there may have been one, or admitting that
one did spawn, without being accompanied by a male, yet another,
which contrived to bring her mate along with her, may have spawned
in the same place the same season; yet, notwithstanding its
liability to these objections, I have no doubt myself that if a
female were to come alone her eggs would be impregnated by the
Par. It is an excellent maxim, that Nature makes no useless
provisions; yet, if we admit that Par are young Salmon, for what
purpose is the milt if not to impregnate Salmon roe? and if we
deny this to be the fact, we must endeavour to show that there are
female Par, but in all my examinations, I have never been able to
meet with one that contained roe. That the Grilse are Salmon is
proved I think sufficiently by the evidence given before the House
of Commons. Mr. Wm. Stephens states (see Rep., p. 52) that he has
known Grilse kept in a salt-water pond until they became Salmon,
and that fry that had been marked came back that year as Grilse,
and the year after as Salmon; and Mr. George Hogarth states that
he has often seen a Salmon and a Grilse working together on the
spawning beds, as two Salmon, or two Grilse; and Mr. Mackenzie
states (page 21) that he, in March, 1823, marked a Grilse Kelt
with brass wire, and caught it again in March, 1824, a Salmon of
seven pounds weight. The testimony of the witnesses from the Ness,
the Severn, the Lee, and some other rivers, is too positive and
too well supported to admit of any doubt as to the excellent
condition of many of the fish ascending those rivers in November,
December, and January--a period when they are out of season, and
full of spawn generally, and even when many fish are caught in
those rivers in the same unseasonable condition. The fact that
there are many fish in fine season in those months may be, I
think, accounted for, if we admit that Salmon spawn every other
year, which I have I think shown to be very probable; but what it
is that induces those fish to ascend rivers so many months before
the spawning season, I cannot explain. Probably there may be some
quality in the waters of these riv