THE RETURN OF SALMON. 51 



the parent stream, although this stream was one not at all fitted for 

 their purpose. 



But this may be accounted for by the topography of the Bay. 

 Tomales Bay is a long and narrow channel, about twenty miles long 

 and from one to five in width, isolated from other rivers, and with but 

 one tributary stream. Probably the salmon had not wandered far 

 from it ; some may not have left it at all. In any event, a large num- 

 ber certainly came back to the same place. 



That the salmon rarely go far away is fairly attested. Schools of 

 king salmon play in Monterey Bay, and others chase the herring about 

 in the channels of southeastern Alaska. A few years since. Captain J. 

 F. Moser, in charge of the Albatross, set gill nets for salmon at 

 various places in the sea off the Oregon and Washington coast, catch- 

 ing none except in the bays. 



Mr. Davis gives an account of the liberation of salmon in Chinook 

 Eiver, which flows into the Columbia at Baker's Bay: 



It is a small, sluggish stream and has never been frequented by Chinook 

 salmon, although considerable numbers of silver and dog salmon enter it late 

 in the fall. A few years ago the state established a hatchery on this stream, 

 and since 1898 between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 Chinook fry have been turned 

 out here annually. The fish are taken from the pound-nets in Baker's Bay, 

 towed into the river in crates and then liberated above a dike which prevents 

 their return to the Columbia. When ripe, the salmon ascend to the hatchery, 

 some two or three miles further up the river where they are spawned. 



The superintendent of the hatchery, Mr. Nie Hansen, informs me that in 

 1902, during November and December, quite a number of Chinook salmon as- 

 cended the Chinook River. About 150 salmon of both sexes were taken in a 

 trap located in the river about four miles from its mouth. At first thought it 

 would appear that these were probably fish which, when fry, had been liberated 

 in the river, but unfortimately there is no proof that this was the case. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Hansen, the season of 1902 was remarkable in that the salmon 

 ran inshore in large schools, a thing which they had not done before for years. 

 It is possible that the fish, being forced in close to the shore, came in contact 

 with the current from the Chinook River, which, since the stream is small and 

 sluggish, would not be felt far from shore. Once brought under the influence 

 of the current from the river the salmon would naturally ascend that stream, 

 whether they had been hatched there or not. 



The general conclusion, apparently warranted by 'the facts at 

 hand, is that the Pacific salmon, for the most part, do not go to a 

 great distance from the stream in which they are hatched, that 

 most of them return to the streams of the same region, a majority 

 to the parent stream, but that there is no evidence that they choose 

 the parental spawning grounds in preference to any other, and none 

 that they will prefer an undesirable stream to a favorable one for the 

 reason that they happen to have been hatched in the former. 



Mr. John C. Callbreath, of Wrangel, Alaska, has long conducted 

 a very interesting but very costly experiment in this line. About 



