304 FAT STORED ON PYLOEICS. 



as follows : firstly, that the external colouriDg of 

 the scales of a salmon is by no means invariably a 

 safe guide to its real condition ; secondly, that the ap- 

 pearance of the pyloric appendages are most valuable 

 in the diagnosis; and, thirdly, that the actual state of 

 the development of the ova or milt is a point to which 

 the strictest attention should be paid. 



In order fully to explain what follows, I must premise 

 by the statement that a salmon is more a sea-water (or 

 rather estuary) fish than a fresh- water or river fish. Al- 

 though it occasionally, as we know, feeds in fresh water, 

 yet the greatest part of its food is obtained in the sea. 



I believe the salmon takes the fly of the angler for a 

 shrimp. Any one who has observed the action of a 

 salmon fly, as worked in the water by means of the rod, 

 will see how very shrimp-like it is. A favourite bait for 

 salmon at Gal way, in Ireland, is a real shrimp ; but, 

 strange to say, the shrimps must be boiled, or the sal- 

 mon will not touch them. Boiled prawns — which, by 

 the way, will keep well in glycerine — are successfully 

 used to catch salmon in Scotland and on the North 

 Tyne ; and salmon will often take a prawn when they 

 will not look at an artificial fly. 



The salmon, therefore, feeding in the sea, gradually 

 accumulates quantities of fat. Upon the pylorics of a 

 481bs. Ehine fish I found no less than five ounces of 

 fat. It is necessary that this fat should be deposited in 

 some reservoir in the creature's body, from whence it 

 may be gradually absorbed during its sojourn in fresh 

 water. A certain portion of the fat is, I find, deposited 

 in the cellular tissue between the skin and the muscular 

 system ; but an admirable arrangement for the storing 

 up of the main bulk of this winter food is found in the 

 presence of the pyloric appendages: these are long, 



