PACIFIC SALMON^ FISHERIES. 105 



Canyon, on the Fraser Kiver, caused by blasting operations of a 

 construction gang building a railroad through there. This slide, it 

 was asserted, cut off the greater part of the run to the upper river, and, 

 it was feared, would have a very serious effect on future runs. By the 

 time the run of 191-i arrived the greater part of the debris had been 

 removed from the canyon, and the fish, it was alleged, could once more 

 pass up. Reports of persons who visited these spawning grounds in 

 1913 and subsequent years were to the effect that but few spawners, 

 as compared with earlier years, were to be found on them. 



That the subsequent decrease in the runs was not to be attributed 

 solely to the rock slide in Hell Gate canyon is plainly evident by a 

 glance at the pack figures in this area before and subsequent to 1913. 

 The following statement shows the combined sockeye packs of the 

 American and Canadian packers operating on the run going to the 

 Fraser River: 



Cases. 



1915 155.714 



19](; 105,870 



1917 « 559, 732 



19 IS 70,420 



1919 98,409 



Ca'^p?. 



1 909 o 1 , 590. 555 



1910 384.81)9 



1911 189,767 



1912 307,775 



1913 12.401,488 



191-1 534,434 



Aside from the damage caused to the ''big year'' run by the rock 

 slide, there can Vje only one explanation of such a progressive decline 

 in the pack, and that is excessive fishing. The fishermen of both 

 countries are to blame for this. On the American side traps, purse 

 seines, and, in a slight degree, gill nets, have taken a heavy toll of the 

 fish as they passetl through our waters. After some had safely run 

 this gantlet thev met thousands of gill nets operted by Canadian 

 fishermen in and around the mouth of the Fraser J^iver and in the 

 lower reaches of same, and it is a wonder that any of the schools 

 ever got to the spawning beds. Several abortive attenijUs have been 

 made bv the authorities of Cana(hi and British Columbia on the one 

 side and the wState of Washington on the other to arrive at some equi- 

 table method for protecting this sockeye run. Tiie former especially 

 have professed an earnest desire to do something along this line, and 

 there is no reason to doubt their sincerity. On the American side a 

 few peojilc, and among these a few of the more intelligent canners, 

 pleaded for the enactment of laws that would adequately |)rote('t the 

 salmon, but they were overborne by the great bulk of the packers and 

 fishermen who, disregarding all the warnings and teachings of expe- 

 rience, insisted upon going ruthlessly forward with the slaughter, 

 and when reproached with their shortsightedness clamored for the 

 establishment of more salmon hatcheries, as though the latter could 

 accomplish the miracle of increasing the supply of fry from a steadily 

 decreasing supply of eggs. 



That this wanton destruction of one of our greatest natural 

 resources should have been permitted to continue unchecked by the 

 people of Washington and British Columbia is a most surprising thing, 

 and indicates either a most remarkable ignorance of the condition, 

 which should have been patent to everybody, or a criminal apathy. 



• The big year, which comes every fourth year. 



