The Salmon 



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October in prime condition, remains there for seventeen months, 

 and returns to the sea without having tasted food ; nevertheless, it 

 is true. Many people do not believe this, and no doubt there will 

 be a considerable number of that opinion for many years to come. 

 When hsh enter fresh water they get lighter in weight, and altogether 

 fall off in condition until they return to the sea again. 



Others again endeavour to prove that they do feed in fresh water 

 by referring to the well-mended kelt ; but, although the kelt appears as 

 if it had been feeding and growing tatter, it is still losing weight. It 

 is not, therefore, the fish that is growing fatter ; it is the eye that 

 is deceived by the scales becoming more silvery and the fish more 

 showy. The kelt, of course, does become much stronger in April, 

 and is then more difficult to land ; but the same thing holds good 

 with regard to spring fish, for in the cold weather in January and 

 February they are not nearly so strong as they would be if caught 

 in April or May. It is the higher temperature of the water that 

 is the cause of this : it is not that the fish has become stronger 

 through feeding. No doubt a fish immediately after its e.xertions 

 in spawning is weaker than it would be, say, two months later, 

 but its strength is due to good health and not to feeding. In all 

 my experience I have never observed a kelt chase a parr, smolt, 

 or trout, nor have I ever known of any one having seen such a 

 thing, although I quite recently read an article in which the writer 

 mentions that kelts make great havoc amongst smolts ! If salmon 

 do feed in fresh water there would be nothing but parr, smolts, 

 and trout for them to feed upon. It such were their food, then the 

 hundreds of thousands of salmon in some of our rivers would 

 swallow them all up in a week. They will take a cherry, a goose- 

 berry, an acorn, a leal, or almost anything that swims against the 

 current. On taking any of these, however, the fish eject them even 

 although they have been swallowed, and allow them to fall to the 

 bottom without exciting any further curiosity. 



I have on several occasions dropped prawn from a bridge into a 

 river. They were readily taken, but after a few nibbles the fish 



