taken into consideration) that the salmon question consists.  To secure a fair proportion of fish for the market, a fair proportion for the rods and a fair proportion for the redds, without unduly damaging manufacturing interests, this is the object of those who have the question at heart, and with many organizations and scientific observers at work it should not be long before the object is attained.  Already the system of “marking” kelts with a small silver label has resulted in a considerable array of valuable statistics which have made it possible to estimate the salmon’s ordinary rate of growth from year to year.  It is very largely due to the efforts of anglers that the matter has gone so far.  Whether salmon feed in fresh water is another question of peculiar interest to anglers, for it would seem that if they do not then the whole practice of taking them must be an anomaly.  Champions have arisen on both sides of the argument, some, scientists, asserting that salmon (parr and kelts excluded, for both feed greedily as opportunity occurs) do not feed, others, mostly anglers, maintaining strongly that they do, and bringing as evidence their undoubted and customary capture by rod and line, not only with the fly, but also with such obvious food-stuffs as dead baits, worms and prawns.  On the other side it is argued that food is never found inside a salmon after it has been long enough in a river to have digested its last meal taken in salt water.  The very few instances of food found in salmon which have been brought forward to support the contrary opinion are in the scientific view to be regarded with great caution; certainly in one case of recent years, which at first appeared to be well authenticated, it was afterwards found that a small trout had been pushed down a salmon’s throat after capture by way of a joke.  A consideration of the question, however, which may perhaps make some appeal to both sides, is put forward by Dr.J.  Kingston Barton in the first of the two volumes on Fishing (Country Life Series).  He maintains that salmon do not habitually feed in fresh water, but he does not reject the possibility of their occasionally taking food.  His view is that after exertion, such as that entailed by running from pool to pool during a spate, the fish may feel a very transient hunger and be impelled thereby to snap at anything in its vicinity which looks edible.  The fact that the angler’s best opportunity is undoubtedly when salmon have newly arrived into a pool, supports this contention.  The longer they are compelled to remain in the same spot by lack of water the worse becomes the prospect of catching them, and “unfishable” is one of the expressive words which fishermen use to indicate the condition of a river during the long periods of drought which too often distinguish the sport.

[v.02 p.0026]