THE SALMON 



winter and summer houses — the fresh rivers for 

 summer and the salt water for winter, to spend his life 

 in ; which is not, as Sir Francis Bacon hath observed 

 in his " History of Life and Death," above ten years. 

 And it is to be observed that though salmon do 

 grow big in the sea, " yet he does ?iot grow fat bid in fresh 

 rivers, and it is to be observed that the farther they get 

 from the sea they be both the fatter and better." ' This 

 last statement is indeed a staggerer, and the exact 

 reverse of the truth. Salmon come up fat from the 

 salt water, and subsist mainly in the rivers upon the 

 fat they have accumulated in the sea, where food was 

 abundant. It has been frequently contended that 

 they do not feed at all in fresh water, and a recent 

 author states dogmatically that it is impossible that 

 they could feed in the rivers, as if they did they 

 would destroy everything in them. This seems to 

 me to be an extravagant proposition. It is possible 

 to feed without making it the main business of life ; 

 and it would seem that grilse and salmon, during' 

 their fresh-water stage of existence, ' take the goods 

 that God provides them,' without going out of their 

 way to search for nourishment. Their digestive 

 organs dwindle and shrink ; but food is frequently 

 found in their lower intestines. Setting aside, for the 

 moment, the well- authenticated instances of food 



