744 REPORT CF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



and examining stomachs of several specimens. 1 All these salmon, 

 and also those which I saw in March, May, and Jane, showed a very 

 striking difference from those which bad been caught during the spawn- 

 ing-season proper. Tbe fishermen call them ii Wintersalme' n (winter-sal- 

 mon). They are highly esteemedou accountof their excellent flavor, which 

 far exceeds that of the spawniug-salmon, (at least during the spawning- 

 season proper,) and the character of their inner parts likewise differs 

 very much from that of the latter. 



This winter-salmon is found in the river nearly all the year round, as 

 well as during the spawning-season proper, 3 but is specially called " Win- 

 tersalm" by the fishermen during the winter-months, when its flesh 

 is of the finest quality. 



When I said before that the inner parts of these fish differ very much 

 from those of the spawn-salmon, I referred to the sexual organs and 

 the surroundings of the entrails. Of the former difference I shall speak 

 later, and will confine myself here to the latter. The whole fish has a 

 much better and fatter texture than the spawn-salmon, and its en- 

 trails are entirely overgrown with fat, so that tbe united appendages 

 of the upper portion of the intestine (the appendices pyloricce) resemble 

 a lump of fat. 4 When I commenced to examine the stomach, I obtained 

 nearly the same result as in my examination of the spawn-salmon j 

 for in by far the majority of cases no trace of food could be discovered. 

 In one stomacb, I found parts of the hard covering and of the wing of 

 a beetle; and in another, the skin of an insect-larva, which could not be 

 satisfactorily identified. In a third specimen, I found, in the back part 

 of the intestinal canal, the scale of a fish, seemingly a cycloid scale. It 

 was lying behind one of the numerous ring-shaped lids, which are found 

 all through the lower portion of the intestinal canal, and had not yet 

 been expelled with the other excrements. 



Besides these, I examined twenty-three stomachs, but found no rem- 

 nants of food. The three fish in whose digestive organs I found some 



'Through the kindness of Mr. Bidder, of Wesel. In Bonn, I obtained the material for 

 my investigations chiefly through Mr. Brenner, but in part from Mr. Schumacher. I must 

 also thank the following-named gentlemen for much valuable information concerning 

 the food of the Salmon : Messrs Lisner and Bidder, in Wesel ; Brenner, in Bonn ; Josten, 

 in Dinslakon ; and Bennings, in Rnhrort. 



3 In this and the following I make a distinction between Wintersalme and Laichsalme, 

 although they both belong to the same species, viz, Trutia salar. I shall later charac- 

 terize this distinction more exactly ; but I may state here that by Laichsalme I mean 

 those fish which, during the spawning-season, ascend the rivers for the purpose of 

 spawning, while I call Wintersalme those which, from October on, appear nearly all the 

 year round, and which do not come directly for the purpose of spawning, as their sexual 

 organs are entirely undeveloped from October to May, and only begin to develop from 

 the month of May. 



3 Mr. Bidder, of Wesel, got the first TVintersalm on the 3d October, and Mr. Brenner, 

 of Bonn, on the 6th October, 1873. 



4 There are such large quantities of fat, that it is extracted by boiling, and used for 

 various purposes. — (According to information received from Mr. Lisner, of Wesel.) 



