24 JANUARY 



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 

 ddbris, 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 curio- 

 sity, mischief, 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 



