542 



CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



An extensive personal inquiry showed that they are never the prey 

 of trout ; and a more limited one renders it doubtful if they ever 

 become the prey of kelt, or spawned salmon, on its return to the ocean. 

 It is probably to avoid the effects of severe frosts, that the salmon selects 

 the bed of the running stream as the spot for the favourable deposition 

 of the ova. The beds of rivers, he conjectures, must vary somewhat 

 in temperature ; and the author supposes, that extreme frosts are 

 less likely to reach the gravel under the stream than under the pool. 

 Frequent experiment has convinced the author, that the opinions 

 of Sir Humphry Davy, Jacobi, and others, — opinions which maintain 

 that the gravel below the stream is selected by the salmon, on the 

 ground of the better aeration of the ova, have no real foundation 

 whatever. 



The food of the fry has been determined precisely, and their whole 

 habits, by repeated anatomical examinations made by himself. 



The salmon seems to hybernate somewhat in certain seasons; a 

 great number of salmon and trout do not enter into the spawning 

 condition, and consequently may be got in first rate order as food, 

 at any time, provided they have the means of subsistence : now, this 

 the salmon can always get at in the ocean, which is his true feeding 

 ground. He cannot get food in rivers of the kind he desires. The 

 salmon-trout, on the contrary, even at the mouths of rivers, will take 

 to the fry of other fishes, to small fishes, and to worms ; and in rivers, 

 he will feed on the larvae of insects, insects themselves, and, in short, 

 on the ordinary food of trout. 



The true salmon prefers a peculiar kind of food, the ova of the echino- 

 dermata, and takes, with great reluctance, any other. Hence, the 

 moment he enters rivers, having abandoned his natural feeding ground, 

 he deteriorates constantly, refuses all kind of food, loses weight and 

 flavour, and gets, in short, entirely out of order. Nor can he ever 

 recover from this state, till he has revisited the feeding-ground in the 

 ocean. It is easy to perceive, in these few statements, how entirely 

 they alter the whole question of the salmon-fisheries. 



These inquiries led the author to examine into the history of the 

 herling. They resemble in their habits the salmon-trout, haunting 

 the feeding-ground of the salmon ; and when fed on the peculiar food 

 of the salmon, their flavour is excellent j but they take readily to 

 coarser food, as small herrings, fry, sand-eels, and the fry of any other 

 fishes. Their stomach and intestines get loaded with putrescent debris, 

 their flesh loses its flavour, and their condition, as articles of human food, 



