Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-01-17

SALMON AND WHAT THEY FEEn ON
was asloni>hed On hearing from Sir John
Richardson Bart. that some Of your read
crs were still in doubt lis to what salmon
feed on. AT er IN experience Of fifty years
not in theory but in real practice. have
seen II deal more than many. 1t is up
ward of forty ears since | had Il supply
of salmon and grilse from the Doom, and,
on opening The StomachS, found largr
quantities Of young herring. Indeed, |
have counted in one grise Of, say, s or 0
pounds weight, half Il pound of herriags
ard herring bones. From Goswick, on
the Tweed, | have seen hcrrings fully
eight inches long-in some instances two
and three both in grise and trout. On
the sea coast on the Firth we often have
found six to ten sand erls in one trout. and,
rs we 60 farther up the first, large qulni
ties of shrimps ami sand jumpers-a small
insect looking creature, like Il young
shrimp, that jumps about the seaweed. On
The river we have found large trout with
spirleys and grHvlcs, or sprIts, in them,
and ut times quaint ties Of whitebait Or soil
of the herring Above the tde.way you
find the stomach gorged with II fine soft
weed that grows on tie bottom, also
occasionally II few small soft mussels, the
young of the earl mussel, and Il small
she'll fish like periwnklc From Loeb
Tay we have had salmon will sea lice on
them. and in their stomachs young char
and yellow trout. Once, on looking Into
saImon net pocket, we saw the salmon
devouring the young soil by the thousand,
even although IN duranre vile. | have
seen salmon kcts in April lie in II pool,
watching tie fry, descending and COB
bling them up by the dozen as fast as they
came down. Our laws are all against ma
ture, and by far too many adult fish get
NJ TO the spawning grounds, us is shown
by the large number Of dead fish found
How Can it be expected otherwise? II
twenty fish get located in Il pool for IL few
weeks or months, and no food is 10 he got
to keep them alive. they just run up and
devour the ovn laid there by themselves or
their neighborS when all is eaten up, they
begin to drvour one another. When
spring arrives, they are starving, in they
then commence on The fry as they descend
to the sea, MS have taken kels in winter
full of ovl and in spring full Of fry. They
also dcvour large quantities Of young
smcltS and erls when in the river. Trout
are more vornciouS than salmon, but the
nets being so large in the mesh, fewer can
be caught to see them. u. Il. There has
now. we think, been Il sufficient accumu-
lation of convincing lestiuons as to the
voracily oi the salmon, whether II salt or
| fresh water. We add one fact from our
own experience: Fishing in the Galway
River. some Years ago, we found it im-
possible to get II rise out of the ti-h, though
there were II large number in the river,
and we tried every fly we could think Of
large, small, sober and gaudy. While
looking dlacon>0lalely on, we suddenly saw
one or two s. rays OF small fry dash from
the water, us may be observed when Il pike
or blg trout rllshrs into shoal of bcak.
| We took the hint FASTENED home, got II
spinning rod and big Allies mlnnoW, and
al the very second cast hooked II very fish,
which came at lhe bait like bull-dog
! With this, we think, VIC may fairly close
tins part Of The subject, rs no one is likely
again TO assert thai salmon have not been
known to feed in the rivers or to have any.
lhing in their stomach>, etc. s. much
having been distinctly proved, who can
doubt that kels levour huge quantities OF
smclts, us has been asserted over and over
again, or that their living in river be-
yond certain period is anything bat a
benefit, ana that in the end Of April and
May, when smrlts congegae, they art
not worth their keep. Inc decline ol
grlse and OF the fishing in many good
trout rivers taIlcs 50 exactly with the
preservation Of kelts rs in itself to be Il
cause of suspicion l-London Field.