242 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



I have, when well concealed from sight, while watch- 

 ing salmon, quietly thrown in preserved minnows, worms, 

 and snails. These have been seized, chewed, and, as far 

 as I could see, invariably rejected by the salmon. Nature, 

 despite its immutable laws of supply and demand, is 

 rarely destructive for destruction's sake, and the salmon's 

 attack on moving objects is actuated by the absolutely 

 natural law which dictates the safety and survival of 

 the species. 



As the spawning season of trout approaches they lose 

 their appetites and their condition, and though at times 

 food is doubtless swallowed and enters the stomach of 

 the trout, it appears to lead to trouble. The few cases 

 in which it is stated that food has been found in the stomach 

 of clean salmon when in fresh water may be regarded as 

 the exceptions, which justify the contention that salmon 

 cease feeding when about to spawn. 



OTHER THEORIES 



Those who hold that salmon feed when in fresh water 

 account for the accepted emptiness of their stomachs 

 as being due either to the immediate assimilation of the 

 food they swallow, owing to the powerful action of their 

 gastric juices, or else to the assumption that salmon vomit 

 forth the contents of their stomachs directly they are 

 hooked or netted, and before being handled. This school 

 of thinkers admit, however, that the appetites of the fish 

 are less when in fresh water than in salt, and that food is but 

 seldom found in the stomachs of salmon save when they are 

 taken in salt water. If the appetites of salmon are stronger 

 in the sea, and if food is partaken of in greater quantities 

 than when in fresh water, it follows that the gastric juice 

 should, when the fish is in salt water, be proportionately 

 more rapid in its action and more powerful in its character, 



