24 The Atlantic Salmon 



thereto, he had a deep open gaff wound in his 

 shoulder. It would seem as though the pangs of 

 hunger drove this fish, sick and sorry as he was, 

 to his second and fatal attempt to devour an arti- 

 ficial fly. One Mitchell, who was engaged in 

 building the section of the Intercolonial Railway 

 which passes Metapedia, assured me he had 

 caught a salmon with a partly digested frog in 

 his stomach. 



The explanation of the fact that salmon, even 

 those caught in salt water, are so very rarely 

 found with any food inside them, is that they 

 have in common with some of the higher forms of 

 creatures the power of emptying their stomachs 

 when danger is near and their activity is to be 

 called in play. They have certainly been observed 

 in this act on more than one occasion. This con- 

 duct on the part of the fish is much more reason- 

 able than that of never taking any food when out 

 of the sea ; and though the appetite of the salmon 

 gradually diminishes after he reaches fresh water, 

 it is pretty certain that he takes an occasional 

 slight refection up to the time of spawning. 



It is not in accordance with well-known facts 

 to accept the very frequent statement that salmon 

 rise to a fly which resembles no living creature. 



