CHAPTER XV 



The great Problem solved at last by J. D. P. Salmon Kelts are 

 Bogies My Sailor Gillie 



" Do salmon feed in fresh water?" has been a too 

 much discussed question these forty years in spite 

 of the fact that more than one learned professor 

 has declared that their doing so is impossible. At 

 last the vexed question is settled and everybody 

 proved almost right. J. D. P. in The Field says : 

 " Examine a mature salmon's mouth, and his teeth 

 will be found to be placed in the apex of each 

 jaw. He has few back teeth, but is furnished with 

 bony jaws, providing a powerful crushing apparatus. 

 The front teeth are used solely in seizing his prey, 

 as evidenced by the salmon's method of taking a 

 minnow from behind and never with the side dash 

 of the trout. Once secured, his prey is passed 

 under the crushing apparatus, whereby he extracts 

 all the juices and goodness from his food. The 

 solid and now worthless materia are rejected." So 

 let it be that they do and they do not. I will forget, 

 with what haste I can, the hooks and worms that in 

 boyhood's days I dug from depths much below " the 

 crushing apparatus," that peace may reign. The 

 fact remains that there are days, oft-recurring days, 

 when the fish refuse the juices of the sweetest 

 morsel, and this is testified to by Ronald himself 

 who told her ladyship from Taymouth Castle when 



180 



