AGE AND GROWTH OF SALMON. 141 



the same feeding-grounds, may, like human beings, 

 beasts, and other Hving things in creation, be dif- 

 ferently constituted, and that some will grow fat 

 in a far less time than others. It is mv belief 

 that this accounts for the disparity in the weight 

 of immature fish of the same age, which are natives 

 of the same river. But why salmon in some rivers 

 attain a far heavier average weight than they do 

 in other rivers is a different thing altogether, and 

 can only be accounted for in the way I have 

 before described, viz. that the feeding-grounds 

 in the sea, appertaining to each river, vary in 

 richness of food, as do pastures on land ; so that 

 salmon having access to the richer feeding-grounds 

 grow to a far heavier average weight than those 

 which have access only to poorer feeding-grounds. 

 There appears to be a difference of opinion in the 

 minds of high authorities as to the nature of the 

 food salmon get in the sea ; some say that they 

 feed on shrimps, others on different kinds of fishes ; 

 but as any kind of food is seldom found in the 



