74 THE SALMON FISHERIES. 
withstand the exhaustion attendant on their long journey 
to their native spawning beds. 
The bearing of this problem, not only upon the future 
management, of the salmon fisheries of the Pacific slope, 
but upon the whole question of salmon fisheries in all 
parts of the world, is very important. The belief that the 
kelts all die is relied upon by the advocates of artificial 
breeding as an argument in favour of the universal adoption 
of that system. And very naturally ; for if the parent fish, 
having once fulfilled their, natural functions, are to perish, 
it is far better that their flesh should be utilised than that 
their dead bodies should lie festering in the river, poisoning 
the atmosphere, and contaminating the water. Inthe upper 
part of the Fraser the quantities of dead fish found after the 
spawning season are said to be so enormous that the effluvium 
is perceptible for a great distance, and is quite sickening. 
There is nothing actually unwholesome in the flesh of a 
spawned salmon, notwithstanding the popular prejudice 
to the contrary; at any rate the Parisian gastronome, who 
is generally supposed to have a keen appreciation of the 
good things of this life, enjoys his diet of kelt, whether 
kippered or salted, or left to be disguised by the resources 
of the culinary art; and Paris has always been an open 
market for poached fish from the English rivers. So many 
million pounds of kippered salmon would be a not 
unwelcome addition to the food resources of many people 
besides the Red Indians of the American woods and 
prairies. But the legitimacy of such a course depends 
entirely upon the absolute proof that the spawned fish 
of 1883 die, and will not come back, in 1884 or 1885, 
increased from fifteen to fifty per cent. in size, if caught 
“fresh run,” and in reproductive power if left to spawn. 
The celebrated breeding ponds at Stormontfield, on the 
