Jui-Y, 1904.] 



KXOWT.F.nGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWvS. 



145 



if not quite, entirely durinjj the period of its sojourn in 

 fiesh water. 



As roijards the fastint; of the eareti seals, we may 

 take the case of the fur-seals on the I'ribiloff Islands, in 

 Berinj;^ Sea, as described by Messrs. Jordan and Clark 

 in the Report of the L'nited States Kur-Seal ln\eslii;a- 

 tion, publisiicd in 1898. 



As regards the females, or cows, it is stated that after 

 their first landings they do not leave the islands for ten 

 or twelve days, during: which peri(xl they must, of 

 course, abstain from fo<xl. \\ hether such periods of 

 fasting are regular or not is, however, at present un- 

 known ; but it is certain tluit neither the cows nor the 

 young bulls (bachelors) fast for any considerable part 

 of the summer, if for no other reason, from the circum- 

 stance that they maintain a uniform condition througlir 

 out the season, always showing- a plentiful stock of 

 blubl>er, and never looking worse at one time than at 

 another. 



\'ery different is the case w ith the old bulls, which 

 come ashore about May i, and do' not again go to sea 

 till al)out July 25, during the whole of which time they 

 remain entirely without f(Kxi. Like many hibernating 

 mammals in autumn, they are quite laden in spring- with 

 fat or blubber, which is gradually absorbed while on 

 shore, leaving the :mim;ds thin and greatly reduced at 

 the close of the breeding season. With regard to the 

 condition of the old bulls as the)' leave the islands after 

 iheir long- fast, some degree of misconception appears 

 to obtain, for although they are undoubtedly much re- 

 duced in condition as compared with their state in the 

 spring-, yet they are by no means so poor, either in body 

 or spirit, as has been reported. So long- as they remain 

 on the breeding-grounds they retain sufficiejit fighting 

 power and courage to make themselves masters of the 

 situation, and it is only when they move down to the 

 sandy beaches, preparatory to« taking to the water, that 

 they become tame and tractable. 



Turning now to the case of the salmon, it may be 

 mentioned that, so long ago as the year 1880, Professor 

 Ruesch published a refx>rt upon observ-ations made on 

 Rhine salmon, w-hich tended to show that while in fresh 

 water these fish, contrary to popular opinion, seldom or 

 never feed. In fact, among- two thousand salmon exa- 

 mined, in only two — and these kclts, or out-of-condition 

 fish- — -w-as any trace of food found in their stomachs, 

 which in most cases were wrinkled up and contracted, 

 showing that they had not contained food for a long 

 time. These observations have been fully confirmed by 

 the exf)eriments and examinations recently undertaken 

 on behalf of the Fi.shery Board for .Scotland ; while 

 these, ag-ain, have been checked, and in some measure 

 corrected, by the independent investigations of Dr. K. 

 Barton. The net result of all these observations is to 

 render it practically certain that from the time they 

 leave the sea until the completion of the spawning opera- 

 tion .salmon, as a njle, take no food of any kind. As re- 

 gards kelts, or spent fish, much the same appears to be 

 true in their ca.se also, but from time to time traces of 

 f(Kxl have been detected in the stomachs of such fish, 

 showing that they occasionally seize and swallow a 

 tempting morsel. In some slight degree the latter 

 circumstance tends to confirm the popular idea that 

 kelts are more greedy than salmon : the term " hungry 

 looking kelt " being common among fishermen. Never- 

 theless, the popular idea is in the main wrong, since 

 most kelts ("unless, perhaps, in cases where they are pre- 

 vented from getting back to the sea owing- to the low- 

 ness of the water) fast as completely as salmon while in 



fresh water. It may thercloie be taken as an estab- 

 lished fact that the true feeding-ground of the salmon 

 is the ocean, and that while in fresh water these fish pre- 

 serve a more or less strict and coiiiplcle fast. 



.Much the same is true of the Pacific species of sahnon, 

 which belong to a distinct genus (Oticorliyncliiis), and 

 afford a large proportion of our supply of tinned salmon. 

 After leaving tidal waters the throat of the-se fishes be- 

 romas contracted, and their stomachs are almost always 

 found to be empty. 



'' The tendency to feed," write Messrs. Townsend and 

 .Smith, " becomes less the longer they remain, and when 

 one has seen the enormous runs of salmon that some- 

 times actually crowd the streams, so that it would be 

 impossible to wade without stcjiping upon them, it be- 

 comes apparent th.-it they could not make their rapiil 

 journeys to the head-waters of the largest rivers and 

 have time to feed, and that there could not be food 

 enough to supply them if they required it. If such 

 hordes should become hungry while on the spawning- 

 grounds hundreds of miles from the sea, one could 

 imag-ine the effect on the sp.-iwning operations. 



'' .As a matter of fact, the salmon, after leaving tide- 

 water, li\es on its own supply of fat and blood. Its flcsli 

 I'ccomes less an<l less re<i, and the fish becomes thinner 

 as it advances up stream 



" The degree of emaciation reached and the extent of 

 the injuries received by the salmon by the time it has 

 spawned preclude the possibility of its recovering, even 

 if it reaches salt water alive. Death is a natiir.il result 

 of the conditions." 



In thus starving and spawning themselves to death 

 Pacific salmon (of which there are several kinds) differ 

 markedly from our own Salmo salar — by far the finer 

 and nobler fish — ^which may return to its sp;iwning- 

 grounds for several years in succession. 



.As regards the origin of the fasting habit in salmon, 

 it might at first sight be supposed that all the nemhers 

 of this group were originally sea fish which acquired the 

 habit of entering rivers to spawn, and that, finding the 

 food to be obtained in fresh waters unsuitable to their 

 taste, they refrained from feeding-. Apart, however, 

 from the question whether the group may not have been 

 originally a fresh-water one, there is the fact that young 

 salmon — parr and smolt — feed greedily in ri\ers, where 

 the former are hatched. 



The authors here cited suggest that, " in the process 

 of evolution, the salmon may have lost the desire to feed 

 in fresh water through the competition met with in the 

 ascent of the rivers, the great distance to be traversed, 

 and the lack of food in any stream necessary to* supply 

 as greatlv increased a pf)pnlation of fishes as occurs in 

 the spawning season." 



Whether or no this be the true explanation in the case 

 of the members of the salmon group, the voluntary fast 

 undertaken during the breeding season bv those fishes, 

 and bv the old males of the sea-lic/ns and sea-bears, is 

 one of the most wonderful physiological phenomena to 

 he met with in the whole realm of organised nature. 



.^ Continental invention for automobile signals makes 

 whistles of the hollow spok&s of the wheels. These are 

 operated by the air a/Ction, oif the wheels in. turning, and 

 controlled by a series of small rubber balls. The balls 

 are contrf>lled froim the seat, their release opening the 

 valves in the spokes and producing a peculiar whistling 

 noise ea.silv heard above the noise of traffic. 



