SOG SALMON FISniXG IX CANADA. 



tlie cutaneous fat is alisorbcd. As the excitement cf the sexual 

 passion increases, the appetite for food ceases, and the sahiion 

 emaciates daily. At length the flesh loses all its nutritive qua- 

 lities as human food, and becomes to a certain extent poisonous. 



The food of salmon in the sea, whatever it is, is eminently 

 nutritive. The suliject is still involved in obscurity, though some 

 clever naturalists have lately paid much attention to it. Dr. Knox, 

 wlio has written a scientific and able paper on the natural liistory 

 I if the fish, which was pulilished in the Transactions of the Eo)'al 

 Society of Edinburgh for 1834, believes that he has discovered 

 the secret. lie a^'crs that salmon in the salt water feed prin- 

 cipalh', if not ivholh', on the eggs of the Astcrias Glacialis, or 

 cross-fish, one of the Entomostnien, or testaceous insects. Now, 

 from the animal's teeth, one might think he Jived on more sub- 

 stantial food tlian almost microscopic ova. But there is positive 

 evidence that cannot be doulited, of .sand-eels and small fish 

 being eaten in the sea by salmon. Sir "Wm. Jardine*, who made 

 an excursion to Sutherlandshire in 1834, for the purpose of 

 examining the natural productions cif the countrj', and paid par- 

 ticular attention to the haliits of the salmon, states that they are 

 fften taken on the Sutherland shores at the haddock lines, halted 

 icitlt sand-rclf, and in tlie Dirness Firth with Lines set on pm-pose 

 with tlie same liait. xVnd what is quite conclusive on the subject, 

 nn' ii'iend Dr. Kelly, of the Eoyal Navy, informs me that in the 

 summer of 1835, when accompanying Capt. Eayfield, E.N., in 

 surveying the Gulf, he saw some salmon, recentlv caught, cipened 

 Viy the fishermen at Gaspe, and ohservcd three sand-eels and tiro 

 smelts in the stomaeh af one of them. Dr. Kell}' adds that the 

 fishermen told him this was a common occm-rence. 



After entering the fresh water, it has been a question whether 

 sidmon eat any food at all ; as the stomachs of many individuals 



■' Fourth Pieport of the British Association, p. 613. 



