150 DO SALMON FEED IN FRESH WATER? 



XXXVI 



This is a question of perennial argument among anglers, 

 DO salmon an ^ ^ otn tne J an d naturalists have received 

 ^^^ much food for thought in the parliamentary 

 water? Blue-book lately published by the Scottish 

 Fishery Board, containing the report of a committee of 

 the Edinburgh College of Physicians and Mr. Walter 

 Archer on investigations into the life history of the 

 salmon, 1 has attracted much attention both from 

 naturalists and anglers. It is a severe and impartial 

 examination of the habits of the fish and of the 

 physical changes to which its most important organs 

 are subject during the passage to and from salt and 

 fresh water. Those who are conversant with the 

 methods of science and the scrupulous accuracy which 

 must always distinguish the work of scientific men 

 from the observations of ordinary lovers of nature, will 

 not hesitate to accept the finding of this Edinburgh 

 committee, especially as it coincides on practically 

 every point with the results obtained by Dr. Miescher 

 Russ from the independent study of Rhine salmon. 

 But there is one part of the report which has proved 

 beyond the digestive powers of many good anglers. 

 This is the opinion arrived at on microscopic and 

 biological evidence, that salmon do not and cannot 

 feed during their sojourn in fresh water, because 

 leaving the salt water when, and not before, their 

 tissues are gorged with the nutrition which the fish 



1 Blue-book C. 8787, 1898. Her Majesty 'B Stationery Office. 



