THE SALMON FAMILY. 59 



waters of their parent rivers, or perhaps of any 

 other river, at a considerable distance from the 

 shore. In the case of the quinnat and the blue- 

 back, their ** instinct" seems to lead them to ascend 

 these fresh waters, and in a majority of cases these 

 waters will be those in which the fishes in question 

 were originally spawned. Later in the season the 

 growth of the reproductive organs leads them to 

 approach the shore and search for fresh waters, 

 and still the chances are that they may find the 

 original stream. But undoubtedly many fall salmon 

 ascend, or try to ascend, streams in which no salmon 

 was ever hatched. In little brooks about Puget 

 Sound, where the water is not three inches deep, 

 are often found dead or dying salmon, which have 

 entered them for the purpose of spawning. It is 

 said of the Russian River and other California 

 rivers, that their mouths, in the time of low water 

 in summer, generally become entirely closed by 

 sand-bars, and that the salmon, in their eagerness 

 to ascend them, frequently fling themselves en- 

 tirely out of water on the beach. But this does 

 not prove that the salmon are guided by a mar- 

 vellous geographical instinct which leads them 

 to their parent river in spite of the fact that the 

 river cannot be found. The waters of Russian 

 River soak through these sand-bars, and the salmon 

 instinct, we think, leads them merely to search 

 for fresh waters. This matter is much in need of 

 further investigation ; at present, however, we find 

 no reason to believe that the salmon enter the 

 Rogue River simply because they were spawned 

 there, or that a salmon hatched in the Clackamas 



