6 
months, adult salmon have been seen, not seeking the 
spawning beds, but lying in deep pools. 
In the Tweed, there have been numerous well-authenti- 
cated cases of salmon having been caught exceeding 70 lbs. 
in weight (see ‘Tweed Salmon Reports,’ published by 
Blackwood, Edinburgh, in 1867, p. 121). 
With regard to the food of the salmon, I have never 
heard of anything having been found in their stomachs, 
except what they must have got when in the sea. Small 
haddocks, cod, and herrings have been found, as well as 
lugworms, sand-eels and remains of jelly-fish. The sea- 
fishermen believe that when in salt water they feed largely 
on “ Mather,” or “ Herring Sile,” minute crustaceans, which 
are often in such quantities as to colour the water, and 
which generally betoken to the fishermen the proximity 
of herrings. Even when salmon are taken in parts of the 
river, at a distance of above twenty miles from the sea, as 
at my own residence on Tweedside, they have been found 
with small herrings in their stomach, as the only appear- 
ance of food. When they come into the river to spawn, 
my belief is that they get no food, except what they bring 
with them, and that they are then supported entirely by 
the oil which is in their flesh. This inference is corroborated 
by the experiments of the late Sir Robert Christison, who 
analysed the flesh of a clean salmon caught when entering 
the River Tay from the sea, and also another salmon when 
descending the Tay to the sea, after having been in the 
river for about six months. The amount of fatty matter 
was in the latter only about one-sixteenth of what existed 
in the former.” 
* See Appendix A (page 37) for the details of Sir Robert Christison’s 
analysis ; and also for some corroborative remarks by the late Frank 
Buckland. 
