MOVEMENTS OF SALMON IN THE SEA. 25 



that all migratory fishes, in winter, resort to the warm waters and abundant food of the 

 Gulf Stream. Such opinions hardly rise to the dignity of theories, for they lack knowledge 

 of the conditions of the Gulf Stream even, to say nothing of any supporting evidence 

 in those conditions. 



Movements of Salmon in tfie Sea. 



The movements of salmon may be considered in two classes: (1) for feeding; (2) for 

 breeding. Feeding is largely in the sea where the fish are beyond observation. Now 

 and then a salmon is taken at sea, which indicates a little concerning the movements. 

 Most that is known is derived from fish on the coast and from marking experiments. 

 Some httle may be inferred from the time and place of appearance on the coast. 



More than 50 years ago Henry Youle Hind (1880, p. 126-127), of Windsor, Nova 

 Scotia, advanced some plausible theories concerning 'The movements of Salmon in the 

 sea,' substantiated by observational and investigational evidence, which later appear 

 to have been disregarded or overlooked. His observations principally pertain to New- 

 foundland and Labrador, and as concerns the movements of salmon the statements are 

 evidently accurate. His theory as to the winter abode of the fish is largely conjecture 

 based upon analogy, although the movements and habits of the fish while under obser- 

 vation perhaps to some extent support his views. 



He says : 'The winter homes of the great body of salmon are on the seaward slopes of 

 the sea-bottom outside of the 100-fathom line of soundings or thereabouts, and generally 

 it would seem just out of the reach of the harp-seals. There are probably two milli on 

 harp-seals wintering on the coast of Newfoundland, but although these active marauders 

 frequently bring cod and "turbot", the Greenland hahbut, and flat-fish generally to the 

 ice-floes and ice-pans, I have not heard of a single salmon being brought up by seals. 

 Nevertheless, since large salmon are caught in deep water off the Island of Fogo up to 

 Christmas, schools of this fish are on the coast, in deep water, at that period and they 

 have been taken there in seal nets. In such deep bays as Trinity, where there are from 

 120 to 320 fathoms of water, salmon are not unfrequently cast upon the shore during 

 winter storms, but these are probably either spring-spawning fish, or schools swiftly 

 resisting fresh water under the ice.' 



Having spoken of the deep waters of the various bays of Newfoundland and Labrador, 

 the author went on to say: 



'It is from these profound and populous depths where cod, young herring, capUn, 

 and probably launce range, with an innumerable multitude of sub-arctic fishes, and an 

 infinite host of the lower forms of Ufe, all fed directly or indirectly by the unfaiUng 

 Labrador current, that the full-grown silver-sided salmon rises in the spring to pursue 

 his food along the islands, headlands, promontories and wall-hke escarpments of the 

 south coast of Newfoundland. On the east Atlantic coast of the Island and the Labrador 

 coast, these features are reproduced in various locaUties on a less grand scale, and in 



