then for the first time discovered, at least for the first time then clearly proved and demonstrated. But whatever may be the truth of the conclusions arrived at by Mr. Shaw, their announcement by him does not appear to have led to anything approaching to that general unanimity of sentiment, the proved non-existence of which affords the defender a good ground of defence in the present action. However correct the conclusions of Mr. Shaw may be assumed to be, the evidence led by the defender has proved that in many, if not all, of the more popular works on natural history which allude to the parr question, and to which a person in the defender's circumstances may naturally be supposed to have the most easy access, the opposite opinion is most distinctly stated. The supporters of Mr. Shaw's views have, in the present case, been chiefly referred to by the complainer as having given expression to their opinions in some learned articles in the Encyclopædia Britannica and Quarterly Review, and the necessity under which the complainer evidently felt himself laid, in his argument at the debate, of so largely, if not exclusively, referring to and quoting from these and similar works, affords a strong presumption against the conclusion prayed for in his present complaint. The defender is, by a strong but necessary fiction of law, presumed to be acquainted with all the statute law of his country; but it would be going rather too far to presume his knowledge of the experiments detailed, and his belief in the opinions put forth in the Transactions of the Royal Society, the Encyclopædia Britannica, or the Quarterly Review.

The defender must naturally be presumed to be more familiar with the experiments which have been made, or are now making, at the Stormontfield ponds, than with those made by Mr. Shaw, of Drumlanrig; but still the Sheriff-Substitute does not, in the evidence led by the complainer in support of the trustworthy and decisive character of these experiments at Stormontfield, find a sufficient ground for giving effect to the conclusion of the present complaint. He has, however, to express the hope that, in these or some similar experiments, there will yet be found a complete solution of the difficulties that lie in the way of a generally recognised settlement of the parr controversy. In the meantime, he cannot hold that the circumstances of this case, arising, as they have been proved to have done, from the justifiable ignorance or scepticism of the defender as to the truth of what the complainer alleges to be the true parr theory, afford a sufficient reason for the infliction of any penalty whatever. J. G.

Act.-William Galbraith; alt.-John Maclean.

D

NOTES OF EVIDENCE.

IN CAUSA.

GALBRAITH against SHAW.

PURSUER'S PROOF-FIRST DAY.

JAMES MATHIE,-I am superintendent on the Forth and its branches. The river Allan is one of its branches. On the 1st October I was on the Allan near Dunblane. It was a Thursday. A man named Henderson was with me. Near the railway bridge

I saw the defender fishing with a rod and line. I asked to see what fish he had, and he showed me some, among which were twenty parrs. I am sure that they were parrs. I consider the parrs are the fry of salmon, and believe they are the produce of the first year. The parr is the first stage of the fish after the depositing of the ova. Parrs sometimes remain more than a year in the river after they are hatched. They then become smolt, with a silvery skin, and in that state descend to the sea. When a smolt is stripped of his scales, it is a parr below. November and December are the usual times of salmon spawning. The ova remain four months, and then parr is produced. This generally takes place about April or May. Since 1st October I have seen parr taken out of the Allan near the railway bridge. I produce some so taken; they are the same kind of fish as I found in defender's pockets.

Cross-examined.-I am a watcher on the Allan, and in the pay of the pursuer. I am paid wages at so much the season. I get nothing for catching poachers. I brought the fish that I took from the defender home, and gave them away. I showed them to my son, but to no other person so far as I remember. I did not cut up any of them. Along with the parr I took from the defender, were one or two yellow trouts. My reason for saying that the fish I got were parr is, that parr are got where salmon have access to. I know the Castle of Kilbryde. I do not know that smolts have been got above the rock at Kilbryde Castle. I have ripped up a parr, and have found both milt and roe. It is considered that the male parr has mature milt. I know that the spawn remains four months. This I know from examining a bed of spawn. I know that the parr continue a year after being hatched, from what I saw at Stormontfield. The parr there

were in ponds, and I have found there that the parr became a smolt the year following. Parr have never been got in the salmon fishing nets in the river Forth. I can't say that the smolts I saw at Stormontfield were the same parr I had seen the previous year. I examined the Stormont ponds carefully. The inlet to the ponds is very small, but I can't tell whether parr could get through or not. I can't tell from the size of the parr how old it is. The parr becomes a smolt about March or April. I can't swear that the parr I have produced are one, two, three, four or five years old. I now open one of the parr produced, and find no milt; I therefore conclude it is a female parr. I find no roe in it. I open another. I think it is a female also, for it has no milt. I can't, by looking at them, say that any of the fish produced are male fish. I have seen parr with the milt. I have not seen the female parr with spawn at all. The male parr will spawn, or, as I mean, have milt the first year of its existence. I don't think the female parr spawns the first year. I am not much acquainted with parr. I am not a parr killer. I know that in the river Allan parrs are now coming up in thousands, but they do not come from the Forth. They are travelling backwards and forwards. my own knowledge that parrs ever go to sea. do not go to sea as parr. I have seen smolts go to sea in shoals. I won't swear that I ever saw parr going down with them. I have have often stripped a smolt of its scales, and found a parr below. I can't tell the age of any smolt I saw experimented upon, but I think I have made the experiment in the month of May. I can't tell how long is the existence of a smolt. It comes back the same year from the sea as grilse or trout. I can't positively say it was the month of May I made the experiment. It was not in November or October. I have seen smolts very small-as small as any of the parr now produced. I don't know that the mouth of the smolt is very tender, or more so than the mouth of the parr. When the smolt goes to sea it is from three to four inches in size. I know nothing about the anatomy of the salmon.

I can't swear upon

I mean to say they

Re-examined for Pursuer.-Smolts are of different sizes, like trouts and grilse. Smolts return as grilse or trouts the first year, but they do not return as salmon the first year. are got, parr and smolts are likely to be found. fisher. I know that smolts are found in the the Forth, but I never saw parr there, and that parr do not go down as far to the sea. at Stormontfield is from the lade, and the

Wherever salmon I am a practical salmon fishing nets in therefore I conclude The inlet to the ponds water goes through a

filter. About April or May, smolts go down the Allan in great quantities, but I never see parr going down. Parrs are in the river at that time in great quantities. The river Forth is not a spawning river till above Gartmore. The Teith and Allan are

spawning rivers.

Re-examined for Defender.-I have often stripped smolts. The scales did not in all cases come off equally easy. I am sure that some of the smolts so experimented on appeared parr below. They had all the marks of a parr. I can't say that the smolts so experimented on were not two years old. I can't say what was the age of the smolts, but I know they were one year, because they can't be smolts till they are a year old. parrs mingling together in the river.

I never saw smolts and I do not think that parr

ever get higher than salmon; but wherever salmon spawn, parr are likely to be found. The lade into Stormontfield pond comes off the Tay. Salmon eat parr, and take it as bait.

JAMES HENDERSON.-I am one of the watchers on the Forth and Allan, and have been so for many years. I was with Mathie on 1st October. I was with him when the defender was found fishing. I am sure twenty parrs were taken from him. Yesterday I saw fish taken from the same place. Those now shown to me are like those I then saw taken, and they have the same appearance as those taken from defender.

Cross-examined.-It was James King who caught the fish yesterday. I was with him at the time. Mathie took them away.

Those now shown to me are parr.

THOMAS RUTHERFORD.-I am water bailie on the Tay. I have been twelve years in the situation. I am well acquainted with the habits of salmon, having been a fisher from sixteen years of age. The fish now shown to me are salmon parr. Fish spawn in November. The period between the depositing of the ova and the coming out of the fish is 130 days. They are then small parr, with the egg about them. They remain so six weeks, and then begin to feed. They vary in size. Sometimes they continue two years as parr, sometimes one year. They do not go to sea as smolts till about April or May-they then get their silver coat. If that coat is rubbed off, the parr appears below. I never saw any parr going to the sea. Sometimes the smolts return as grilse in seven weeks, four pounds in weight. This is the earliest return I know of. They never return as salmon the first year. I have seen them return as grilse the second year. I formerly held the opinion that parr and smolts were different fish. I changed my opinion four

years ago. opinion. come in.

My experience of the ponds caused me to change my The water of the pond is all filtered. and no fish can There are also small zinc sieves. What is produced in these ponds is from the ova of salmon and grilse. The produce in the first stage was parr. Before the first year was over there were no smolts in the ponds. I have no doubt the fish shown to me were parr.

Cross-examined.-The peculiar marks of the parr are cross bars on both sides of the body, and a black spot on each side of the gills. They have not always the same number of marks-at least I don't know. I can't tell the usual number of such marks. I never counted them. Fish get into the sea from the Stormont ponds, but no fish can get up. The opening is made for a few minutes at a time to let the fish out. It is quite impossible other fish could get into the pond. A number of the parr were marked when they became smolts, and we got some of them back. Parrs have been marked, but we never get these in the same year except as parr. We have got back marked smolts in the same year. We mark the fish by cutting the fin. The fin of a fish does not grow. I can't say whether fish are marked in other places. It was generally believed that the fish we got back were the fish we marked. I don't think that they were other fish. We have got a marked fish seven weeks after it went to sea. It was caught in the river three miles below Perth. This was in fresh water. Some of the marked fish have been found in salt water, near Montrose; they were grilse; we believe them to be fish of our breeding. Some people attempted to cheat us. Our mark was known, and a reward offered. A good many fish, not ours, were We knew, from the mark on Salt water kills parr. I

marked as a trick and sent to us.

the fin being fresh, that it was a trick. never saw a parr older than two years. I can't tell the age of the parr now shown to me. I can't tell the sex. I never saw roe to any size in a parr. The male parr spawns; that is, it has milt. I don't think spawn could get through the filter at Stormontfield pond. I have known a salmon take smolt as bait. I know that parr is used as bait.

PETER MARSHALL.-I have charge of the breeding ponds at Stormontfield. Filtered water is put into the beds of the ponds, and ova was deposited on gravel. The ova was put in in November, 1853. In 130 days the ova first produced a little fish, with a bag attached. (Witness here exhibited specimens of fish in the different stages of production.) In six weeks the fish began to