FISHES AND FISHERIES 243 



fish extending over an area of six or eight square miles or of 

 their being so thick in a stream that they completely fill it 

 from bank to bank, or of their filling the nets and traps of 

 the fishermen so full that they cannot be lifted, we can hardly 

 believe that the time will come when the supply will not meet 

 the demand. Yet when we consider that we sometimes take 

 3,000,000,000 herring, and more than 455,000,000 pounds of 

 salmon, and 75,000,000 pounds of white fish in one season, 

 and other kinds of fish in corresponding numbers, it seems 

 evident that the supply will not always last, especially as by 

 far the greatest number of these fish are taken while they 

 are on their way to their spawning beds or after they have just 

 reached them. Indeed, many of our most profitable fisheries 

 would have been ruined long before this if the state and 

 national governments had not come to their aid, and by more 

 or less effective laws stopped some of the needless slaughter, 

 and, especially, by artificial propagation, increased the supply. 

 We are accustomed to say that nature's way of doing a thing 

 is the best way, but this is not always so by any means. 

 When the female king salmon leaves the ocean, swims far up 

 some stream and reaches her spawning bed, she hollows out 

 a little place in the gravel and deposits her eggs which 

 scatter over the bottom. Many of them settle in crev- 

 ices where they are safe, but others are left exposed, 

 attractive morsels for the hungry trout and other fish which 

 haunt the spawning beds. Soon after the female has laid 

 her eggs the male deposits close to them the milt, which con- 

 tains the spermatozoa. Probably a large percentage of the 

 eggs are fertilized. They remain in their hiding places for 

 about two months, unless disturbed by freshets. Finally the 

 young salmon issues and after about two months more of wait- 

 ing, during which time it is absorbing the yolk sac which fur- 

 nishes it its food, it ventures forth to seek other food. Most 

 of these young salmon fall a prey to the larger fish and other 

 enemies before they are old enough to be able to take care of 

 themselves. Thus from the thousands of eggs that are laid 

 by the parent salmon comparatively few young issue and live 

 long enough to make their perilous journey back to the sea. 



