8 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 



Every creature here named as constituting 

 the food of salmon has been found in the fish 

 itself, though, as these soft-bodied creatures are 

 so quickly digested, positive identification is 

 rendered most difficult. Both salmon and trout 

 have the power (which, under certain circum- 

 stances, they exercise) of ejecting any food recently 

 taken when they find themselves hooked or in 

 the meshes of a net. Quantities of herrings 

 have been found thus ejected. That the salmon 

 is a voracious feeder in the sea is certain, and 

 whilst in its native element it lays up a large 

 store of fat a fact which probably accounts for 

 its feeding but little in rivers. Like many other 

 sea creatures, it is able to draw upon this pro- 

 vision during its periods of semi-fasting, as when 

 on the spawning-beds. The intestines of sea- 

 salmon are frequently almost buried in layers of 

 fat, and another coating lies between the skin 

 and the flesh. Salmon constantly confined in 

 fresh water, as in lochs, and those which can 

 take the sea at pleasure, are altogether different 

 fishes. The flesh of the latter is firm and pink, 

 that of the former white and insipid. As salmon 

 grow rapidly, they probably do not attain, to a 

 great age. 



After the salmon and trout proper come a 

 number of close cousins, concerning which much 



