ARE PARR SALMON FRY?

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2355, 19 October 1870, Page 2

ARE PARR SALMON FRY?

In September, 1869, before Sheriff Barclay, at the instance of the Tay Fishery Board, Robert Miller was charged, under the 19th section of the Salmon Fisheries (Scotlam!) Amendment Act, with, on Saturday, the 26th Jims, 1869, hiving in his possession nine smolts or salmon fry, on the banks of the stream called the Mach any, a tributary of the Earn, at or near the farm of Kirkton, in the parish of Trinity-Gask After hearing evidence and agents, the Sheriff took the case to the avizandum, and on the Bth October last issued an interlocutor, “ finding it proved that the defender had in his possession nine-dish, commonly known as parr?, but which are not named in the prohibitory and penal clause libelled ; but finds it not proved that he had any fish known as smolt?, the only fish named in the same section of the statute libelled, and declines to inquire and decide the question in natural science whether parrs be or be not salmon fry ? ” The Tay Fish ry Board appealed to the Perth Circuit Court of Justiciary against the Sheriff’s decision. At the Circuit Court held on the 6th May last the appeal was sustained, and Lord Jerviswoode remitted the case back to Sheriff Barclay to take proof as to whether parr he or be not salmon fry. The following evidence was given for the proscution : Peter Marshall, keeper of the Stormontfield Salmon Propagation Ponds, said: I was examined before in this case, and recollect that nine parrs were produced in two bottles. In one bottle there were five parrs which were the young of the pure salmon. The other bottle contained four parrs, which were the young of either the bull-trout or the sea-tront. These latter are migratory fish, that go to the sea, and are all of the salmon species. There is a great difference between these and the yellow trout. The whole nine fish I saw iu the bottles go under the name of parr, and they are called the fry of salmon. The five were really the young, of the pure sa’mon, and the others were migratory fish of the salmon kind. The fish are called fry as soon as they come out of the egg. They are called parrs until they become smolts, and go to the sea. They do not assume the parr marks until they are three months old. The name of fry is applied to them when in a multitude. I have had seventeen years’ experience in connection with the ponds. Some persons call smolts salmon fry. When they change, and get into a si.very state, they are called smolt?, and then go to the sea. The first stage of the salmon is after their coming out of the egg, with the bag attached, which is al. s rbed in about six weeks, and it is about three months till it is a parr. The thiid stage is when the parr is grown into a smoß, in which state it goes to the sea. It returns a grilse, and grows to he a salmon. Examined by Mr MacLeish : When the fry change into parr they have peculiar black and red marks along the side, which continue till they become smolts. 1 have seen p irr and smolts in the river at the same time. They arc, I think, exactly the same species, and there is no distinction between them. They are bred off the same fish. 1 have got in the ponds a pike, a yellow trout, and a minnow. I don’t believe that fish c f different species spawn together. I have no experience as to a cross-breed produced from a yellow trout and a sea-trout. I have had a parr in the ponds for five years. By Mr Blair : I have taken parr and kept them for two years, and they became smolts.

By Mr MacLei-h : There are fish called the barr of the sea-trout. The spots on the parr of salmon vary from eleven to sixteen. I never counted the number of spots upon the parr of trout. By the Sheriff : The young of the yellow trout is never called parr. I can easily distinguish them. Parr is a term generally used with respect to salmora. By Mr Blair : The parr become in many cases smelts in about fourteen months, when a large number are sent into the river, but the greater part of the smolts do not leave the ponds till the second year. Ido not know the reason of this.

Mr Brown, teacher of drawing in the Perth Seminaries, deposed: I have paid a good deal of attention to the natural history of the sa’mon. I have done so since 1833, when James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, wrote or the subject I go to the Starmontfield Ponds almost every week, and have marked numbers of the smolts as they left the ponds, and have seen them return grilse. Since 1836 I have reared the young of salmon myself from ova procured at Almond-mouth. The first stage, of course, is the egg, next the little fish with a bag, which is absorbed by passing into its stomach in about six weeks. It is then a parr—a perfect fish, and first able to act for itself. There is a great difference in the time when the parr becomes a smolt. Sometimes they become so in a year, in fourteen months, and I have seen it four years before a change took place. There are plenty of parr and smolts in the river at the same time of the same year’s breeding. The young salmon are indiscriminately called fry until they become grilse. 1 have compared the parr of the river, and found them the same as those reared in the ponds. By Mr MacLeisb : Parr becomes smolts in a year, a year and a-half, and two years. A young salmon in the parr state, if going to the sea, would die in a few minutes. They never go seaward till they become smolts. You cannot tell a parr from a smolt till it has scales, and if you rub off the scales you have a beautiful parr. It might not be easy for a common man, not intimately acquainted with the subject, to distinguish these young fish. However, from the lessons I received from Sir William Jardine, I could easily distinguish them. I have studied the subject for the last fifteen years. By Mr Blair: There would be a great difficulty for an unitiated person to distinguish between a yellow trout and the parr of a salmon. Yellow trout, sea-trout, and bull-trout have all parr, and are very like one another. By the Sheriff: 1 would not confine the term parr merely to the young of the salmop species, David Burns, farmer, Stanley : I have had considerable experienee with breeding salmon,

I was some time in Ireland rearing salmon. We wanted to introduce them into some lakes and rivers. We succeeded. Besides this experience, I have been very much interested in the Stormontficld Ponds. 1 have watched the different stages, and I 1 avc found that in about three to four months the shell bursts. Afte • the shell bursts the parr are very small, and have a bag. Before they absord the bag, about four or seven weeks afterwards, they are called “parr.” With the bag they arc called young “parr.” If there were one shown me I would call it a “parr,” but if there were a number they would bo called “salmon fry.” They arc called “fry” until they are grilse, fsmolt are also “frv. ” This expression is used for young salmon. There is no stage between smolt and grilse. There is no particular limit to the word “fry” until they are smelts.