History and Habits 27 



in the stomachs of salmon therefore they never 

 feed has very slight foundation. Many salmon 

 are caught in salt water, and these are quite as 

 empty as those taken in the rivers above. Any 

 one who has taken salmon with a shrimp bait 

 cannot avoid the belief that they take it for food, 

 otherwise why do they swallow it ? I have seen 

 in Ireland salmon taken with shrimp, worms, 

 eels tail, and a spinning minnow. There are a 

 few known instances of food having been found 

 in the stomachs of salmon, and certainly one in 

 which salmon when netted were seen to disgorge 

 quantities of sand eels. 



The fish of the early runs, and up to August 

 certainly, spawn in various parts of the rivers, 

 generally on the gravelly bars where the eggs 

 are deposited and impregnated, in troughs or 

 grooves dug out with infinite pains by the fish, 

 and afterward covered by them. After this func- 

 tion is performed, they shortly descend to the sea, 

 changed from the plump, brilliant creatures of a 

 few months since, into lank, slimy, black objects, 

 there to regain in the unknown quarters they 

 inhabit, their health and strength, and to return 

 in one, two, or three years perhaps, to encounter 

 again the fresh perils of their renewed journeys. 



