8 ‘ BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
Every creature here named as constituting 
the food of salmon has been found in the fish 
itself, though, as these soft-bodied creatures are 
so quickly digested, positive identification is 
rendered most difficult. Both salmon and trout 
have the power (which, under certain circum- 
stances, they exercise) of ejecting any food recently 
taken when they find themselves hooked or in 
the meshes of a net. Quantities of herrings 
have been found thus ejected. That the salmon 
is a voracious feeder in the sea is certain, and 
whilst in its native element it lays up a large 
store of fat—a fact which probably accounts for 
its feeding but little in rivers. Like many other 
sea creatures, it is able to draw upon this pro- 
vision during its periods of semi-fasting, as when 
on the spawning-beds. The intestines of sea- 
salmon are frequently almost buried in layers of 
fat, and another coating lies between the skin 
and the flesh. Salmon constantly confined in 
fresh water, as in lochs, and those which can 
take the sea at pleasure, are altogether different 
fishes. The flesh of the latter is firm and pink, 
that of the former white and insipid. As salmon 
grow rapidly, they probably do not attain to a 
great age. 
After the salmon and trout proper come a 
number of close cousins, concerning which much 
