THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



Salmon — the Latin name salmo means ''the leaper" — 

 inhabit mostly the temperate and arctic zones of the 

 world, and are found both in the salt seas and in fresh 

 waters. The question has often been discussed whether 

 the salmonids — so many of which live in the sea, yet 

 resort to rivers for breeding purposes — were originally 

 marine or fresh-water creatures. The balance of scientific 

 opinion, however, is in favour of the marine theory, 

 which is strongly supported by the fact that the over- 

 whelming majority of the fishes in the sub-order of which 

 the salmonids form part, inhabit the sea permanently. 



Owing to fishery restrictions, salmon are no longer 

 among the largest families of fishes, but (in the words of 

 Dr. D. S.Jordan, one of the eminent ichthyologists of the 

 last century) ''in beauty, activity, gaminess, and quality 

 as food, and even in size of individuals, dififerent members 

 of the group stand easily with the first among fishes". 



Some of the species, especially the larger ones, are 

 marine creatures, living and growing in the sea, and 

 swimming to fresh waters to spawn. Others live in run- 

 ning brooks, occasionally travelling to inland fresh-water 

 lakes or outward to salt waters. Others again are lake 

 fishes, approaching the shore, or entering brooks in the 

 spawning season, or at other times retiring to waters of 

 considerable depth. Some kinds of salmon are voracious 

 and venturesome, while others are modest and cautious 

 and will not take the hook. Salmon are a comparatively 

 recent development among fishes — none of them occur 

 as fossils, unless it be among quite recent deposits. The 

 fact that they have so quickly adapted themselves to live 

 in both salt and fresh water is therefore little short of 

 miraculous. 



The Atlantic salmon feeds avidly on crustaceans, small 

 shrimps and young crabs, and their eggs, while it re- 

 mains in the sea or in brackish estuaries. As an adult, 

 a little more than four years old, it enters a river and 

 works its way towards the river's source. It has probably 



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