18 SALMONJD^E. 



the stomach of the Salmon to ascertain the exact nature of 

 that food which must constitute their principal support, few 

 have been able to satisfy themselves. . Dr. Knox states, 

 " that the food of the Salmon, and that on which all its 

 estimable qualities, and, in his opinion, its very existence, 

 depend, and which the fish can obtain only in the ocean, he 

 has found to be the ova or eggs of various kinds of echino- 

 dermata, and some of the Crustacea. From the richness of 

 the food on which the true Salmon solely subsists, arises, at 

 least to a certain extent, the excellent qualities of the fish as 

 an article of food. Something, however, must be ascribed to 

 a specific distinction in the fish itself:, for though he has 

 ascertained that the Salmon-Trout lives very much in some 

 localities on the same kind of food as the true Salmon, yet 

 under no circumstances does this fish acquire the same exqui- 

 site flavour as the true Salmon." 



That they occasionally, however, take other food, is also 

 well known. Faber, in his Natural History of the Fishes of 

 Iceland, remarks, " The common Salmon feeds on small fishes, 

 and various small marine animals." Dr. Fleming says, 

 " Their favourite food in the sea is the Sand Eel ;" and I have 

 myself taken the remains of Sandlaunce from the stomach. 

 Sir William Jardine says, " In the north of Sutherland a 

 mode of fishing for Salmon is sometimes successfully prac- 

 tised in the firths, where Sand Eels are used as bait : a line is 

 attached to a buoy or bladder, and allowed to float with the 

 tide up the narrow estuaries. The Salmon are also said to 

 be occasionally taken at the lines set for Haddocks, baited 

 with Sand Eels. At the mouths of rivers they rise freely at 

 the artificial fly within fifty yards of the sea ;* and the com- 

 mon earth-worm is a deadly bait for the clean Salmon. All 

 the other marine Salmon are known to be very voracious ; 

 and there is nothing in the structure of the mouth or strong 



