THE SNIPE LOCHS. FISH-LORE. 99 



"What about their increased food? Ah! that is 

 a puzzling point to some ; but you have heard that 

 salmon are never caught with any food in their 

 stomach ? " 



"Yes," the Major remarked; "and the common 

 theory is that they disgorge on "being hooked, or 

 surrounded with a net." 



" Not my theory, Major. Doubtless they are always 

 empty, and this was confirmed to me by an old 

 fisherman employed for many years in cutting up and 

 pickling salmon, before the ice plan of transit was 

 discovered ; but the disgorging theory seems un- 

 tenable." 



" Why ? " 



" For two reasons either of which one might think 

 sufficient to disprove it ; and reason number one is, 

 that if, in great takes of salmon, sixty or a hundred 

 fish were to disgorge, the bag of the net would be 

 full of evidence." 



"Hem! some sense in that; and what is reason 

 number two ? " 



" That after spawning, the kelts, as is well known, 

 eat freely, and do not disgorge, as I have seen many 

 kelts opened before the law was so stringent, and 

 these were all more or less crammed with small 



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