20 SPRING SALMON 



teids, fat, and mineral salts from the muscles by the 

 ovary, which goes on from the moment the salmon 

 leaves the sea till the spawn is deposited. Nor is this 

 loss made good in any appreciable degree by food taken 

 in the upward journey ; for in almost every salmon 

 taken in the Rhine and examined by Herr Miescher, 

 the intestinal canal has been found to be completely 

 empty, though in a few instances there has been found 

 a small amount of dubious debris, generally imbedded 

 in glairy mucus. Indeed, the form of the stomach 

 alters during the ascent of the fresh water 'from 

 being a large thin- walled organ, it becomes contracted 

 and thickened into a tube with hardly any lumen 

 (enclosed space), the inner surface of which is puckered 

 and thrown into deep rugae.' The stomach, in short, 

 ceases to act as a receptacle of food. This may go 

 some way to explain the greater readiness of fresh-run 

 salmon to seize the artificial fly, compared with those 

 which have lain long in fresh water. Further research 

 may dispel the mystery which envelopes the rising 

 mood in salmon, and confirm the view taken by many 

 practical anglers, that it is more from curiosity, mis- 

 chief, or irritation, than from hunger, that these fish 

 ever take the fly at all. But let not those despair who 

 esteem mystery the crowning charm of angling ; there 

 is enough obstinacy among Tweed boatmen as to the 

 'right fly' to ensure the exclusion of coldly rational 

 principles in fishing that fair stream for many a day 

 to come. 



To sum up, then, the conclusion to which this specu- 



