THE SEA-SALMON 



landlocked form are now looked upon as merely 

 subspecies of the latter. It has been well observed 

 that the absence of the sea-going instinct is, doubt- 

 less, at the bottom of most of the variations from 

 the normal type of the sea-going form which the 

 landlocked salmon exhibits. They have a lower 

 tone of color, less striking sexual marks, and differ- 

 ent habits of feeding, and the parr markings or dark 

 bands are said to be never completely obliterated 

 from the sides of the landlocked as they are in the 

 sea-going salmon. 



It has been a matter of much discussion as to 

 the primitive habitat of the sea-going salmon and 

 its landlocked congener. Was the first fish land- 

 locked or an anadromous fish, and during the 

 glacial period was the surface of the earth so 

 changed that land became water or vice versa, and 

 the salmon confined or set free by these physical 

 changes ? These are matters interesting to ponder 

 over, but never to be decided, so far as the land- 

 locked salmon is aff^ected. We all know how 

 readily many fish accommodate themselves to a 

 widely different habitat in character, food, nature 

 of water and general environment. Even the 

 striped bass, a fish essentially of the salt and brack- 

 ish waters, has been found thrifty, fat, and game in 

 a small lake near the Hudson River, but with no 



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