LET US GO AFIELD 



it becomes friskier. Cattle require sah occasionally. 

 Deer and mountain-sheep will go any distance to a 

 salt-lick. Even the cold-blooded and somewhat un- 

 intellectual fish family seems to have sense enough 

 to go once in a while to the sea when it has the 

 chance. The strongest, gamest, handsomest, and 

 most toothsome of all our fishes are those which 

 make the journey to the sea. Not without reason 

 is the salmon called the king of all fishes. 



There are salmon which never get to the sea but 

 which still remain good examples of the salmon 

 family the ouananiche, or land-locked salmon of 

 certain eastern lakes, is such a salmon a good fish, 

 and active, but one which does not attain to a quar- 

 ter of the weight of members of the family which 

 make the pilgrimage to the salt water. 



A salmon somewhat similar to the land-locked 

 salmon of the east is the steelhead of certain western 

 rivers; but the steelhead, although he can live the 

 year round in fresh water, is at his best when, like 

 the salmon, he can make a pilgrimage to the ocean 

 and back again to the fresh-water rivers. There 

 is no gamer fish that swims than this same ham- 

 mered-down, compact salmon. No matter what the 

 scientists call him, he is a small and lusty trout of 

 bold fresh water rivers, gone to sea and returned 

 the better and stronger for it. 



50 



