174 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



succeeded in saving four-fifths of them. The swellings gradually grew 

 less, and those whose stomachs had not burst recovered their usual 

 manners, customs, and appearance in a few days. This is so novel an 

 experience that I have had no hesitancy in here recording it. 



In reference to cleanliness, it is useful to know chat it is almost placed 

 beyond doubt that the gill fever is the result of minute organic matter 

 of a more or less acrid nature getting entangled in the branchiae of the 

 young salmon. So far as I know there is no cure except that used in 

 the former case ; a fresh sod or turf will often do away with or prevent 

 this destructive fungus. 



The parr having lived some three or four years laying the foundation of 

 a sturdy after growth, it proceeds to put on the smolt dress, and as the 

 spent adult fish slowly drop downwards, it also passes on to the estuaries 

 and thence out to sea. It is said that when ready for the trip the 

 smolts assemble in sculles or shoals and proceed in family groups at the 

 rate of about two miles an hour. They are excessively cautious when 

 they arrive at an obstacle, and a waterfall to be traversed is a source of 

 contemplation for a shoal of smolts which sometimes engages their 

 attention for many hours. Mr. Pennell thus quotes an eye-witness of 

 their caution : " They no sooner came within the influence of any rapid 

 current than they in an instant turned their heads up the stream, and 

 would again and again permit themselves to be carried to the very brink, 

 and as often retreat upwards, till at length one or two, bolder than the 

 rest, permitted themselves to be taken over, when the entire flock one by 

 one disappeared, and then, so soon as they again had reached compara- 

 tively still water, they turned their heads towards the sea and resumed 

 their journey." After reaching the estuaries they do not at once plunge 

 into the salt water, but accustom themselves gradually by remaining in 

 the brackish water till the necessary alterations of constitution and 

 habits are effected. 



Now what constitutes the food of the smolt after its arrival in the 

 salt water is a matter rather for conjecture than actual determination 

 here. That "potent grave and reverend" doctors have disagreed is 

 certain, and I certainly do not feel competent to decide the moot points 

 involved. Professor Quekett, in 1860, stated it as his opinion that 

 salmon search deep water for the ova of the sea urchin. Professor Huxley, 

 on the other hand, believed that its food consists of entomostraceous 

 Crustacea, found frequently on the surface of deep water in semi-solid 

 masses. Dr. Knox thought that the ova of various kinds of echino- 

 dermata (star fish, sea urchins, encrustes, &c.,) and some Crustacea (crab 

 and lobster family) form its food. Paber, in his " Natural History of 

 the Fish of Ireland," says the salmon feeds on " small fishes and marine 



