SALMON EATING SMOLTS. 



CONTROVERSY on the above subject is highly inter- 

 esting, from one point of view viz., that from it 

 we learn how salmon adapt themselves to modes of 

 life suited to their habitat. In some waters they will 

 not look at a fly, so can only be captured with the 

 phantom minnow or trolling with a natural fish, of 

 which none is so attractive a bait as smelts or parrs, 

 the younger members of their own family. Again, 

 in certain rivers salmon will not touch such baits, and 

 utterly decline to be " cannibals." The Lune, I 

 suppose, is an instance of these very rare rivers. In 

 Ireland, in very nearly the same latitude as the Lune 

 viz., in Lough Neagh and its tributaries, I never 

 knew a salmon to be taken trolling with either 

 artificial or natural bait, while in some of our most 

 famous lochs in Scotland, especially those which are 

 feeders of the River Tay, fly-fishing is at such a 

 discount that it is seldom or never resorted to. A 

 kelt that has sufficient and preferable food to his own 

 species will doubtless leave his relations alone, but I 

 am strongly under the impression that it is only under 

 such circumstances that he will do so. 



Some of my readers will be horrified to see me 

 comparing a kelt to a pike, but I doubt whether there 

 is much difference between them in regard to what 

 they will or what they will not, if hungry, gratify 

 their appetites with, and it is a well-known fact that in 

 some waters nothing is so alluring to a jack as a 



