482 NATUEAL UISTOKY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



lakes its chances for life in the world of waters above it, usually, I think, going up some brook or 

 keeping near some rocks, or close iusuore where it can quickly retreat to a place of safety when 

 alarmed. It feeds now voraciously on whatever it can find in the way of smaller fishes and insects 

 and other animal life in the water, and iu a few months, probably not over six or seven, it joins 

 the host of its comrades, of about the same size, which are preparing to go to sea, and forming a 

 school which, without doubt, gathers myriads of recruits as it proceeds, it hastens with all its 

 might down the stream. It is now a beautiful silvery fish from four to six inches long, and in a 

 IV\\ days finds itself in the midst of the allurements and dangers of the great unknown ocean 

 which it was so eager to seek. 



Strange as it mi y seem, very little, almost nothing iu fact, is known of its ocean history. 

 We know that the Salmon leave the mouths of the rivers at stated times and return to their rivers 

 at other stated times, but where they go, or how they fare, or what motives guide their course in 

 their mysterious ocean sojourns, no one knows. From analogies derived from our knowledge of 

 the history of the Atlantic Salmon, we suppose that they go into deep water when they leave the 

 rivers, and seek the best feeding places they can find, but that is about all one can say of their 

 ocean history. The few facts that we know of this portion of their existence are pretty much 

 confined to the following: 



They are found to have deep-sea fish in their stomachs when they first make their appearance 

 near enough to the mouths of the rivers to be captured, which points to the deep sea as their ocean 

 feeding ground. They are also caught by the fishermen at Monterey Bay, which shows that they 

 go as far south as Monterey, but does not show, what some claim, that the course of their migration 

 is southward, for there may be hundreds of unknown places to the north where they could be 

 caught if the fishermen were there. It only proves that some California Salmon go south to 

 Monterey. One thing more is known about their ocean life, and that is that they are often caught 

 with marks of seals' and sea-lions' teeth upon them, which shows that they are preyed upon in the 

 sea by these enemies, though, perhaps, it is only in their journey to the rivers' mouths that they 

 have to run the gauntlet of seals and sea-lions, for they probably have a capacity for standing 

 deeper water than their just mentioned enemies. 



THE RIVER ASCENT. But if their ocean history is little known, their inland career, if I may 

 use the expression, is interesting enough to make up for it. From the moment the Salmon enters 

 the river, which it is sure to seek once in one or two years, its progress is one of interest. It first 

 proceeds, at its leisure, to the head of tide-water. Here it stops awhile and seems to play about 

 between the fresh and salt water. Whether it shrinks from encountering the sudden change from 

 salt water to fresh, which is probably the cause of its dallying, or for other causes, it usually spends 

 two weeks or more hovering about the border line between sea water and river water. When it 

 has overcome its apparent repugnance to making the change to fresh water, it makes a rapid 

 charge up the river for the clear gravelly streams which its instinct or sixth sense tells it to seek. 

 Now, paradoxical or unreasonable as it may seem, it stops eating. If it is caught a short distance 

 above the head of the tide, the undigested remains of what it ate in the salt sea water are some- 

 times found in its stomach, but after that nothing, absolutely nothing, is ever found inside of the 

 California Salmon to show that it has eaten a particle of food in fresh water. As a proof of this 

 statement 1 may mention that out of a great many thousand specimens that have been examined 

 no food has been in the stomachs of any. 



After the Salmon cross over the line into the fresh water above them they begin a strange and 

 almost inc.xplicablc journey. In the case at least of the Salmon that go up the McCloud River, 

 they begin a journey which is a long fast, and ends only in death. If they could be credited with 



