114 THE HABITS OF THE SALMON. 



not a very uncommon occurrence to find parasites in 

 the gills of clean fish. I have on several occasions 

 caught salmon with sea lice on them as well as 

 maggots in their gills. This has been in the spring, 

 when the fish are unmistakably clean ; and I have 

 also caught them in spring with maggots in their 

 gills and without sea lice on them, when their flesh 

 was quite equal in richness to any I ever tasted. 

 Perhaps, innocently enough, many a good salmon has 

 been returned to the river which should have had a 

 berth in the captor's creel. Maggots are fi-equently 

 found in the gills of bull trout caught in the tideway 

 by nets. I do not know why they are more prevalent 

 among bull trout than salmon, but such is the case. 

 With regard to parasites found on the body of salmon, 

 Mr. Willis Bund, in " Salmon Problems," says, 

 " That many ignorant persons mistake fresh- water 

 for sea lice." Quite so. But I would remark, that 

 salmon are not attacked by fresh-water lice until they 

 have been some time in the river ; and it is principally 

 in very low water, and during the hottest weather 



