FOOD OF THE SALMON. 259 



1 prodigious variety and distinctness of the species 

 ' of the trout tribe. 



' With reference to the migration of the salmon, 

 ' I may mention that the Helmsdale herring fishers 

 ' took one in the Murray Frith, sixteen miles from 

 ' land, and this was considered as a singular, if not 

 ' an unprecedented occurrence. 



' With respect to the food of the salmon, I may 

 ' add, that although I omitted to examine the sto- 

 ' machs of the fish I caught, I am of opinion that 



* the sand eel is a favourite food of the tribe, when 

 ' running up the aestuaries. A companion of mine 

 ' told me that one of the large sea trout he had 



* caught was full of the sand eel, and the habits of 

 1 the salmon are so similar to it, that I have no 

 4 doubt whatever, though I cannot affirm the fact, 



* that the salmon also feeds on them. 



6 With regard to \\ hat I have said respecting the 

 4 varieties of trout in the lakes,* I wish to be con- 



* sidered as speaking rather as an angler than in a 

 ' scientific and accurate sense, and of differences of 

 ' colour, weight, strength, and variety, which of 

 ' course attract an angler's attention, rather than of 



* It has been observed by that eminent and amiable natural- 

 ist, Mr. Yarrell, that the physical properties of fish depended upon 

 localities ; and as an instance of it, he has mentioned that the 

 Sewen, as so called in Wales, is the bull trout of the northern 

 rivers, their organic structure being perfectly the same, and only 

 differing in colour externally and internally. ED. 



