THE LIFE OF THE SALMON 247 



are only in abeyance, one can easily understand why a tired 

 and slightly hungry fish will dash at a morsel that simulates 

 some food of its liking." 



The pursuit of the lure by a salmon may possibly be 

 induced by an appetite, which is excited as a result of 

 fatigue, but which appetite it is prevented from satisfying. 

 The instincts of spawning have induced it to leave the ocean 

 in which it has been feeding, and were the stomach, etc. 

 to continue to receive food the gratification of appetite might 

 deter the salmon from the arduous work of ascending 

 its river. Hence it is not improbable that Nature by 

 preventing it from swallowing food, turns its attention once 

 more to the up-stream j ourney. 



Salmon continue to feed, i.e., to take the lure, for some 

 days after they have entered a new pool, and that in most 

 cases long after any physical exhaustion, produced by the 

 effort, would have disappeared. 



A GENERAL VIEW 



Salmon, like trout, may feed prior to and when spawn- 

 ing, and they may or may not at such times swallow food. 

 Their gastric juices may sometimes act with lightning result, 

 then again at others, as in the case of the rat, be inoperative, 

 and they may both feed and swallow during a period when 

 others of their kind cease feeding ; but such isolated cases as 

 are advanced, even if they be considered as proved, should 

 be regarded as exceptions tending to prove a general rule. 

 But that salmon do not feed, in the general sense of the 

 word, prior to or during their spawning operations is, I 

 think, acknowledged by most people, and hence the 

 pursuit of the denizens of fresh-water may be due to the 

 instinctive desire to preserve their species from the inevit- 

 able dangers of any attack, and therefore my theory may 

 be worthy of some attention. 



