h heavier than others of the same age, what
their mode of life is in the sea, why some run up in spring and summer
when the breeding season is not till about November or December,
whether they were originally sea-fish or river-fish--these and other
similar questions await a conclusive answer. One principal fact,
however, stands out amid the uncertainty, and that is that without a
free passage up and down unpolluted rivers and without protection on
the spawning beds salmon have a very poor chance of perpetuating
their species. Economic prudence dictates therefore that every year a
considerable proportion of running salmon should be allowed to escape
the dangers that confront them in the shape of nets, obstructions,
pollutions, rods and poachers. And it is in the adjustment of the
interests which are bound up in these dangers (the last excepted;
officially poachers have no interests, though in practice their plea
of "custom and right" has too often to be 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 foo