152 



months, adult salmon have been seen, not seeking the 

 spawning beds, but lying in deep pools. 



In the Tweed, there have been numerous well-authenti- 

 cated cases of salmon having been caught exceeding 70 Ibs. 

 in weight (see 'Tweed Salmon Reports/ published by 

 Blackwood, Edinburgh, in 1867, p. 121). 



With regard to the food of the salmon, I have never 

 heard of anything having been found in their stomachs, 

 except what they must have got when in the sea. Small 

 haddocks, cod, and herrings have been found, as well as 

 lugworms, sand-eels and remains of jelly-fish. The sea- 

 fishermen believe that when in salt water they feed largely 

 on " Mather," or " Herring Sile," minute crustaceans, which 

 are often in such quantities as to colour the water, and 

 which generally betoken to the fishermen the proximity 

 of herrings. Even when salmon are taken in parts of the 

 river, at a distance of above twenty miles from the sea, as 

 at my own residence on Tweedside, they have been found 

 with small herrings in their stomach, as the only appear- 

 ance of food. When they come into the river to spawn, 

 my belief is that they get no food, except what they bring 

 with them, and that they are then supported entirely by 

 the oil which is in their flesh. This inference is corroborated 

 by the experiments of the late Sir Robert Christison, who 

 analysed the flesh of a clean salmon caught when entering 

 the River Tay from the sea, and also another salmon when 

 descending the Tay to the sea, after having been in the 

 river for about six months. The amount of fatty matter 

 was in the latter only about one-sixteenth of what existed 

 in the former.* 



* See Appendix A (page 183) for the details of Sir Robert Christison's 

 analysis ; and also for some corroborative remarks by the late Frank 

 Buckland. 



