THE LIFE OF THE SALMON 243 



in order to enable the fish to assimilate the greater amount 

 of the food they then take. Only, however, on the reverse 

 assumption that in fresh water the gastric juice is increasing 

 instead of diminishing in its power can the members 

 of this school of belief explain the theory they advance, 

 i.e., the rapid assimilation of the food the salmon swallows 

 in fresh water, while still having to admit, that obviously 

 the gastric juices have had no such rapid solvent effect, 

 at any rate in relation to the food-evidence they advance 

 in order to prove their contention. 



In order to justify his belief that salmon feed while in 

 fresh water, a contributor to a sporting paper recently 

 related the following facts : A salmon of 14 pounds 

 presumably a fresh-run fish was killed and taken home, 

 and on being opened was found to contain a rat in its 

 stomach. This rat which is the evidence he advances that 

 salmon feed in fresh water must have been swallowed some 

 time before, but it had not, apparently, suffered from the 

 attack of the gastric juices which this writer claims as being 

 so powerful a solvent that " any food that is swallowed is 

 almost immediately assimilated." Neither had it been 

 vomited, as it should have been if the vomiting theory held 

 by others of his opinion can be accepted as accurate. 



In a second instance, he states that a huge kelt was 

 captured in his presence which had in its mouth a partially 

 swallowed J-pound trout, perfectly fresh and apparently 

 just seized. The head and shoulders had been reduced to 

 a mere pulp, and he considers that the rapid action of the 

 salmon's gastric juices accounted for the pulp-like condition 

 of that portion of the trout even before it reached the 

 stomach of the salmon, for he states that the tail end, from 

 the dorsal fin, was uninjured. The trout in this instance 

 cannot be taken as proof that the salmon swallows food, but 

 only that he would like to, and apparently makes the 



