THE ELUSIVE QUARRY 29 



Among the few naturalists to whom it is familiar, 

 this question, as has been mentioned, finds an answer 

 almost unanimous. It is said that during the period 

 of the year which is spent in fresh water before 

 spawning salmon have no need for food. The reasons 

 for this opinion are impressive. In his Report for 

 1880 to the English Fishery Board, Mr. Huxley 

 notes that salmon taken after having left the sea are 

 never found to contain food. He thinks that salmon, 

 like herring, enter upon a long fast at an early stage 

 in the development of the roe. Between 1877 and 

 1880 Professor Reusch examined 21 6 clean salmon 

 taken from the Rhine, and did not find any rem- 

 nant of food. He, like Sir Robert Christison, held, 

 after careful study of many fish, that " surrounding 

 the digestive organs, as well as within and around 

 the muscles of every part of the body," there is " an 

 abundance of stored-up and transposable fat which 

 fully explains the ability of the salmon to sustain 

 life for many months, as it evidently does, without 

 food while in fresh water."" The Scottish Fishery 

 Board have arrived at the same conclusion. Noting 

 these testimonies and many others, Dr. J. Kingston 

 Barton, whose thoughts are set forth in The Country 

 Life Library work on Fishing, is puzzled at the 

 unbelief of the multitude. "The sportsman," he 

 writes, " seems to be the most difficult person to 

 convince, because he more than any other sees 

 the fish vigorously take his fly or bait, and, conse- 

 quently, stoutly denies that salmon wilfully starve 

 themselves."" Dr. Barton accounts for the sports- 



