CHAPTER V 
THE FEEDING OF THE SALMON AND GROWTH 
OF THE GENITALIA 
Absence of food in salmon taken in fresh water—Feeding 
habits of fry—Food of salmon in the sea—Nutriment in 
tissues of estuary as against upper water fish—Transference 
of nutriment from muscles to reproductive organs 
THE scales and the signs of growth and of spawning, 
as well as other points in the life of the salmon, are 
intimately connected with the feeding and non-feed- 
ing periods of the fish. 
It is recognised on all hands that the stomach of 
the salmon when taken in fresh water is invariably,. 
or all but invariably, empty. A further examination 
also shows that the intestine is empty, and shows 
no indication of nourishment having been taken for 
some time previously ; and that the gall bladder is 
collapsed. Hoek* in the lower Rhine examined 
2000 salmon, and found food remains in only seven, 
which were taken in the months of March and April. 
Meischer Ruesch f at Basle, 500 miles up the river, 
examined 2162 salmon in four years in connection 
* Rapport over Statistische en biologische onderzockingen ingesteld 
met behulp van in Nederland gevangen Zalmen. 
+ Statistische und biologische Beitrige. Zur Kenntniss von Leben 
des Rheinlachses in Susswasser. (Metzger und Wittig, Leipzig, 1880.) 
