SALMONIDJE. 



83 



great pleasure for I had become really interested iii his success- 

 went on his way rejoicing. 



The voracity of the Salmon is excessive ; and yet from the 

 singular fact, that their stomachs are invariably, or almost invariably, 

 found entirely empty, none of the numerous examiners have been able 

 to satisfy themselves what constitutes its principal support. The 

 stomach of the Salmon is, comparatively speaking, small ; and Sir 

 Humphrey Davy asserts that, out of many which he had opened, he 

 never found anything in their stomachs, but the tape-worms bred 

 there, and some yellow fluid. This peculiarity must, I think, be in a 

 great measure attributed to their rapid digestion. In this they differ 

 greatly from the Salmon Trout, which is constantly found stuffed with 

 food of all sorts, the remains of small fish, beetles, insects, and the 

 sand-hopper, Talitris locusta, which would seem to be their favorite 

 food. 



Dr. Knox states, that the food of the Salmon, and that on which 

 all its estimable qualities, and in his opinion, its very existence 

 depends, and which the fish can only obtain in the ocean, he has 

 found to be the ova, or eggs of various kinds of echinodermata, and 

 some of the Crustacea. From the richness of the food on which the 

 true Salmon solely subsists, arises, at least to a certain extent, the 

 excellent quality of the fish as an article of food. Something, 

 however, must be ascribed to a specific distinction of the fish itself ; 

 for though he has ascertained that the Salmon Trout lives in some 

 localities on very much the same kind of food as the true Salmon, yet, 

 under no circumstances does this fish ever attain the same exquisite 

 flavor as the true Salmon." 



Dr. Fleming states that their favorite food is the sand-eel ; " I 

 have myself," says Mr Yarrel, " taken the remains of the sand- 

 launce from their stomach." It is known, moreover, that they are 

 taken in Scotland by lines baited with this brilliant and glittering 

 little fish ; as are the clean-run fish, fresh from the sea, with the 

 common earth-worm. Mr. Yarrel mentions an instance of one being 

 taken in the Wye with a minnow, and Sir Humphrey Davy states, 

 he has fishod for them in the Tay with great success, with the Parr, 

 probably their own young fry, on spinning tackle. 



For what they mistake the large artificial fly, by which they are so 



