176 THE SALMON. 



them, or what is the same thing, without a purpose, is 

 not less than to assert that Providence allows the ex- 

 istence of anomalies among His works; that, in fact, 

 there is a defect, as palpable as our senses can make it, 

 in the system of Creation. Such is the ultimate con- 

 clusion, we lead their own arguments to bring them to, 

 who give out that the chief sustenance of the salmon 

 consists of marine insects and ova, too minute for the 

 naked eye to discover. That it jars equally against 

 truth, reason, and experience will be acknowledged by 

 all; nor need I, in order further to expose its absurdity, 

 do more than call attention to the fact, that Nature, in 

 no other instance that I can bring to mind, hath been 

 accused of the like inconsistency or mal-organisation 

 in her structure, but rather, in all ages and among all 

 nations, though most powerfully among the most civil- 

 ised, hath excited wonder, too deep for utterance, by 

 the singular adaptation of portion to portion, which is 

 manifest throughout her works, as well as by their end- 

 less variety, their striking utility, and the harmonious 

 spirit which reigns among them ; so harmonious and 

 yet so needful, that were an atom of this globe to 

 become defective or extinct, nay, drawn out merely by 

 an angel's hand, from the attractive sphere of what re- 

 mains, who dares question, but that the fine balance of 

 earth would be thereby destroyed its pillars misplaced 

 its cornice broken its whole fabric shattered and 

 dissolved ? 



I shall now proceed to relate what has fallen, from 

 time to time, under my personal observation, in regard 

 to the marine food of the salmon ; following up what I 

 have to state with a few quotations from various ichthy- 

 ologists, corroborative, in some measure, of my own 

 opinion on this subject. One instance, impressed on 



