SALMON— FOOD OP. lOJ" 



believe that by this means the mimber of fishes in a river can be largely increased. 

 Others maintain that such a proceeding merely increases the number of fry 

 which are preyed upon by every species of vermin (p. 44). But as this has 

 certainly proved beneficial in some rivers, if not in all, it simply comes to the 

 question of whether their enemies are too great for their being able to survive, 

 and which must always be a question for local knowledge and experience to 

 decide.* 



The food consumed by the anadromous salmon is somewhat varied, for while 

 living in the ocean they appear to lay in a sufficient stock of fat, which is most 

 readily seen around the stomach and ceecal appendages, to last them when 

 residing in fresh water, or at least until the spawning season has passed. I have 

 seen the remains of sand-eels, Ammodytes, herrings, and Crustacea in their 

 stomachs. Jardine remarked that on the Sutherlandshire shores they are often 

 captured on haddock lines baited with sand eels. Thompson, in Ireland, also 

 found these fish eating sand-eels, and that they were occasionally taken in 

 Dundrum Bay upon lines baited with pieces of mackerel which were laid for 

 mullet. Morrison recorded having captured salmon within flood mark, some of 

 which contained two, others three, full-sized herrings. In the British Museum 

 are the remains of a gar-fish, Belone, taken out of a salmon captured in fresh 

 water, but evidently only lately from the sea. One of 24 lb. being opened, two 

 trout (size six to a pound) were found inside it (Fishing Gazette, December 20th, 

 1879).t Parnell (Fishes of the Frith of Forth, p. 287) observed "in the county 

 of Devon as well as in Loch Lomond in the north, I have taken grilse with the 

 minnow, and the common earth-worm is a deadly bait for the clean salmon. On 

 dissecting the alimentary canal of several dozens of salmon that were taken in 

 salt water, I seldom failed in discoveriag the remains of some kind of food in the 

 lower intestines, the stomach itself being almost invariably empty. In one out 

 of five I found the remains of Crustacea and bones, apparently of the sand-eel and 

 other small fish. I have repeatedly found the remains of worms and aquatic 

 insects in the intestines of those salmon that were taken in rivers and lakes ; but 

 in those fish which were far advanced in roe both stomach and intestines were 

 almost invariably empty."J 



* Eamsbottom, of Clitheroe, in The Salmon and its Artificial Propagation, 1854, observed 

 " What would be the fate of any number of defenceless fry which might be turned into a river ? 

 It would be as reasonable to expect a return of salmon from so many flies as from fry thus 

 recklessly exposed to destruction " (p. 61). " To turn one or two hundred thousand smalts into 

 a river would afford a vastly different result from exposing the same number of young fry. 

 Instead of being liable, for upwards of two years, to the attacks of their enemies, their stay in 

 the river would be but temporary " (i.e., p. 61). 



t Mr. Gosden (Land and Water, March 8th, 1886), remarked : — " In 1874 I opened 490 salmon 

 and examined the contents of their stomachs ; 290 from the river Bxe, 150 from the Eiver Dart, 

 and 50 peal from the Dart. In these I found eels, minnows, loach, gudgeon, sand-eels, shrimps, 

 &o. A friend of mine in Exeter caUed my attention on May 19, 1874, to an eel about a foot long. 

 This was partly digested ; also to a carp taken from a salmon caught in Hampshire waters, and a 

 half -digested grey mullet from an Exe fish." Also another correspondent observed in the same 

 paper on February 20, 1886, as follows : — " I have seen salmon feeding in both river and lake 

 and am simply astonished that any person could maintain that they do not. . . . Salmon are no 

 doubt heavy feeders while in the sea, and also while in the estuary. I have taken no fewer than 

 eleven herrings out of a ten-pound grilse caught at the mouth of the Ayr. I saw at Dalmeny five 

 smaU sprats talien out of a sahnon. A salmon caught at Kincardine had in its stomach seven 

 sparUng, besides other small shrimps ; another caught high up the Eorth, at Polnaise, contained 

 a smolt and eighteen shrimps ; one taken at Craignorth Cruives, twenty-seven young eels ; 

 others having swallowed a trout fuUy half a pound and every imaginable insect, flies, beetles, 

 worms and spiders. So it is all nonsense to say that salmon, when in fresh water, live upon 

 love. In 1844 two salmon caught on Loch Tay in May had in their stomachs one and two young 

 char quite entire, besides partially digested pieces of others." 



Some Severn fishermen believe that elvers are largely consumed by salmon, and in the Usk 

 there is a local saying, " a good year of prides (small lamperns), a good year of salmon." 



t Dr. Davy (Physiological Researches) wished to ascertain whether the usually empty condition 

 of the stomach in salmon in fresh water is or is not accompanied by the presence of gastric 

 juice ? He took test papers, considering that if there it must be acid. August 24th, he tried on 

 four salmon taken in the sea, about three hours after capture, there was no solid food or liquid, 

 only a little adhering mucus, and no effect was produced on the litmus paper. 26th, four more 



