44 SALMON FISHING 



Inver salmon took the Mayfly. What is the palate 

 but a guide as to that which may be eaten ? How 

 is it possible to conceive the function of the palate 

 in exercise without an impulse from the stomach ? 



There is another authority whose opinion is 

 strikingly contradicted by the language in which it 

 is expressed. Mr. Abel Chapman, author of Wild 

 Norway, a well-reputed student of nature, is posi- 

 tively assured that salmon in fresh water do not 

 feed. Nevertheless, he considers "the assumption 

 not unreasonable that the fish take the fly or other 

 lure for some object on which they have been 

 accustomed to prey whilst in salt water." He thinks 

 that "the tinsel and gaudy feathers, it may be, 

 recall pleasant memories of the week or month 

 before, and Salmo salar, with reawakened rapacity, 

 but without pausing to consider the anomaly of thus 

 finding a prawn inland, or a starfish stemming a 

 rapid, dashes at the intruder, and gets the hook. 11 

 What evidence in favour of the scientific dogma can 

 we find in this ? If any creature rushes ravenously 

 at something which is taken to be a familiar article 

 of diet, and because it seems so, is it possible to 

 refrain from assuming that power to eat, or desire 

 to eat, is the motive of the action ? 



The more closely we examine the scientific doctrine 

 as set forth by the authorities, the more suspicious 

 becomes its resemblance to those other opinions of 

 that peculiar class, the intellectually exclusive, who 

 are unable to be content with the commonplace or 

 the obvious. These opinions, and all others of the 



