24 THE SALMON FISHERIES. 
CHAPTER TE: 
Power of Man over the Fisheries—Tinning Salmon’ on the 
Columbia River—Migration of the Salmon—Fixed Engines— 
Their Prohibition by Magna Charta—Stake Nets in Scotland— ~ 
Movable Nets—Their Regulation—Mesh of Nets—Close Seasons 
—Salmon Spearing—Destruction of Fry. 
WHETHER the statement that the Pacific Salmon spawn 
but once, and yet are able to maintain so enormous a stock 
of fish in those rivers, can be substantiated or not, the fact 
of such large numbers of fish perishing after spawning 
brings into fresh prominence two points: Ist, the extra- 
ordinary reproductive powers of this fish; and 2nd, the 
great influence that man can exert over the fisheries to 
their detriment in other ways than by mere legitimate 
fishing. 
With all the drawbacks of their existence: with disease 
and accident dealing death in all directions: with enemies 
at every turn waiting for their prey: with the innocents 
subject to a perpetual massacre, so that the “survival. of the 
fittest”? seems to resolve itself into the “survival of the 
luckiest,” it seems amazing that so many millions should 
ever arrive at maturity in asingle river. On the other hand, 
it is hardly less surprising that man should be able, not 
to decimate, but to annihilate, such abundance. There is 
little fear, happily, that the Canadian and United States 
authorities will blindly allow such a source of wealth to be 
sapped, but the same fate which has befallen the fisheries 
of the Old World will assuredly overtake those of the New 
