36 THE SALMON FISHER. 



"books since Dame Berner's time, about salmon not 

 eating when ascending to their spawning grounds, 

 but that theory is now wholly exploded. Indeed, 

 naturalists are able to declare that the only purpose 

 for which they enter the rivers in the spring is to 

 feed! This statement applies not only to salmon 

 but to sea trout, shad, herring, striped bass, and all 

 kinds of anadromous fishes as well. All these sev- 

 eral kinds of fish have been taken on the fly at the 

 season named, and the food which they are in pur- 

 suit of when they " strike in " has been indubitably 

 ascertained by investigation. That of the salmon 

 consists, as has been stated, in great part of herring 

 sile and fry of all kinds, including young Salmo- 

 nidae and other salt and fresh-water varieties, 

 shrimps, prawns, crustaceans, cephalopoda, floating 

 invertebrata and whatever else they can procure at 

 the varying seasons of the year. In fact, salmon are 

 almost omniverous, especially in the winter months. 

 Quite recently, in indicating killing baits for salmon, 

 in some northern rivers of Great Britain, Mr. GL M. 

 Mackay, a writer in the London Fishing Gazette, has 

 furnished, perhaps unwittingly, the key to the long- 



