THE ATLANTIC SALMON 



with salmon to provide food for the multitude, upon the almost invariable 

 emptiness of the stomach of salmon taken in fresh water, upon the col- 

 lapsed condition of the gall-bladder, and upon the absence of all trace of 

 food in the intestine. Dr Miescher Ruesch, stationed at Basle, 500 miles 

 from the mouth of the Rhine, spent four years in the physiological examina- 

 tion of salmon, in the course of which 2,162 passed through his hands. 

 In all that number there were only two salmon (male kelts) in which he 

 could detect any trace of food. Each of these two contained some scales of 

 a small cyprinoid fish. In the lower part of the Rhine Dr Hoek examined 

 2,000 salmon, in only seven of which did he detect remains of food. Now 

 the Rhine, unlike such highland torrents as the Awe or the Spey in Scot- 

 land, or the Sundal Elv or Aaro in Norway, contains plenty of succulent 

 fare did salmon care to have it for the catching. But they donU so care: 

 they arrive from the sea with their tissues stuffed with nutriment and 

 with no appetite for more. They left their native river to seek food; when 

 they have absorbed as much as they can assimilate, they go hom$ and 

 turn their thoughts to matrimonial prospects. 



It may be urged that the investigations of Messrs Grey and Tosh on 

 Tweed salmon brought out a different result from those of Miescher 

 Ruesch and Hoek on the Rhine fish. So it did. In 1894 and 1895 they exam- 

 ined 1 ,442 salmon taken in the nets at Tweedmouth and found food in 

 128, equal to nine per cent. Aye, but of what did that food consist ? It was 

 carefully analysed and consisted almost exclusively of the remains of 

 marine organisms — herrings, sand-eels, whiting, haddock, crustaceans 

 and sea -worms. The only exceptions were one caterpillar, four feathers, 

 some blades of grass and a beech -leaf !* These salmon had taken the food 

 before running into the estuary where they were captured. 



In connexion with the question how much nourishment a salmon could 

 find, were he in search of it, in any of the rivers frequented by that species, 

 it should be borne in mind that the general stock of salmon in European 

 waters, especially those of Great Britain and Ireland, has been severely 

 depleted. It is reasonable to suppose that in primitive times, before nets 

 and other contrivances had been effectively used, the Atlantic salmon 

 frequented the rivers of western and northern Europe in hordes as pro- 

 digious as the kindred species do at this day on those parts of the Pacific 

 coast not yet depleted in the interest of canneries. If, therefore, there is 

 not food enough in our rivers to support the moderate number of salmon 



"Fourtttnth Annual Report, Fishery Board for Scotland, Part ii, Note 2. 



D 17 



