188 



SALMON. 



columns, cranial and other bones, with the denser tissues, as 

 the lens, etc. The number of bones in several cases shewed 

 that these fishes had enjoyed a most ample repast, since they 

 belonged to species from eight to ten inches in length. Some 

 pieces of cartilage, skin, and pigment cells seemed to belong 

 to Smelts, but most of the vertebrse belonged to larger fishes. 

 The other kinds of food found in the stomach consisted of 

 fragments of small fresh-water Crustacea, with a portion of a 

 Shrimp in one or two of these fishes; and an occasional piece 

 of insect cuticle. Accompanying a quantity of mucus, which is 

 found in the intestines, is a number of white or yellowish masses, 

 which are gritty, and consist of calcareous crystals; of which 

 the origin is an interesting question, but it is not influenced 

 by the kind of food. The skeleton of the Salmon being of 

 small specific gravity, and deficient in earthy matter, it may be 

 that the excessive elimination of salts keeps down the specific 

 gravity; or the circulating fluid by this means may so adapt 

 the bones to the varying density of the salt and fresh water, 

 that their specific gravity is in accordance with the medium in 

 which they swim. The rapidity and power of digestion in this 

 fish are extraordinary; and the true state of the matter seems 

 to be, that the Salmon when in fresh water feeds rarely and at 

 intervals, but not from want of voracity. There is abundance 

 of parasitic animals in the entrails of this fish. I was informed 

 by Mr. Bewick, the eminent engraver on wood, that when a 

 gentleman of Newcastle had lost a gold ring from a boat on 

 the Tyne, he was so fortunate as to recover it from the stomach 

 of a Salmon which was purchased in the market at Newcastle. 

 But whatever be its food, it is noticed that this fish soon declines 

 in growth and the quality of its flesh in fresh water; but it is 

 then successfully fished for with large artificial flies, which must 

 be of gorgeous and glaring colours; and these beyond doubt • 

 are viewed by the fish as native inhabitants of the stream rather 

 than of the air, as is proved by the manner in which it is 

 necessary to employ them; which is by causing them to sink 

 below the surface, and there kept in motion unlike that by 

 which the Trout is enticed to leap after a fly. 



It has been questioned how soon it is after going down to 

 the sea, before the young of the first season, or of the second 

 if they have remained so long in fresh water, are induced to 



