Trout and Salmon 191 



that this year's heavy run would produce a large egg supply, 

 which would result in a heavy run year after next, whereas 

 last year's light run would produce a small egg supply, which 

 would result in a light run next year, and so on ad infinitum. 



Such facts as these were far from conclusive. At best, they 

 were circumstantial evidence, but they were enough to spur 

 scientists on to find incontrovertible proof of the matter, one 

 way or the other. In this they were aided by the economic 

 aspect of the question. Government agencies were trying to 

 preserve the salmon by limiting the fisheries. Each fisherman 

 was objecting that there was no point in saving the fish in 

 his particular waters just to let them spawn a new genera- 

 tion somewhere else for someone else to catch. If it could 

 be shown that the adult fish always returned to the stream in 

 which they originated, it could be made clear to the fishermen 

 that saving fish in his waters would be for his own benefit, 

 not someone else's, and that if the fish in his waters were 

 exterminated, he himself would be the one to suffer. 



And so Great Britain and Canada and the United States 

 all undertook to find out the truth. They initiated great 

 marking programs. In the Welsh and Scottish rivers, and 

 in the streams of North America, hundreds of thousands of 

 little salmon lost fins. Before they went out from their natal 

 waters to the sea, they were seized upon and their home 

 address was unalterably fixed upon them. In one stream the 

 adipose and one ventral fin were removed, in another both 

 left fins, in a third the diagonals, in a fourth the anal and 

 right pectoral, and so on. Then careful watch was kept of 

 the fish returning to spawn. And the amazing fact was 

 proved that they do return to the stream in which they 

 grew up. The proof is overwhelming. On this continent the 

 number of fish which have been marked is close to four 

 million. I do not know the number in Great Britain, but it 

 IS large. And while some fish have been found other than 



