FISHES AND FISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 27 



Farther north the runs are not so distinct and the spawning times 

 not so widely separated. In Alaska, for instance, while there are 

 indications of distinct runs, the process is practically continuous. 



The young salmon are said to go to sea as soon as they can swim 

 and eat. Their parents, like all other salmon of the genus Oncor- 

 Jiynchus, soon die, the species spawning but once in a lifetime. This 

 is not a recently discovered, though a comparatively lately verified, 

 fact. In Arctic Zoology, pubUshed in 1784, Pennant, deriving his in- 

 formation from an earlier work on Kamchatka, says: 



Every species of salmon dies in the same river or lake in which it is born, and to 

 which it returns to spawn. In the third year male and female consort together and 

 the latter deposits its spawn in a hole formed with its tail and fins in the sand, after 

 which both sexes pine away and cease to live. 



Pennant, however, evidently ascribes this phenomenon to starva- 

 tion and attendant weakness and the consequent inability to reach the 

 feeding grounds, and not to a decree of nature. 



Young salmon subsist mainly upon insects. 



It has been positively ascertained that in the sea the chinook does 

 not, always at least, depart far from the coast, and that while in the 

 sea and estuaries it feeds upon small fish such as herring, smelt, 

 anchovies, etc., and its movements in the sea are doubtless to a great 

 extent governed by its food supply. It is, however, apparently a 

 rather indiscriminate feeder, taking not only almost any small fish, 

 especially those that swim in schools, but free-swimming marine 

 invertebrates, such as squid, shrimp, etc. Its voracity is graphically 

 illustrated by J. Parker Whitney in an article descriptive of angling 

 for chinook, in Monterey and Santa Cruz Bays, Cal., which appeared 

 in Forest and Stream a number of years ago. He says: 



As I fought my salmon to gaff, my sinker was caught by another salmon as I was 

 lifting it clear from the water to detach as usual from the boat side, and carried it off. 

 This was within 6 feet of the boat and I plainly saw the rush, the open mouth, the 

 strike, and the tear away. The sinker line fortunately broke, leaving my half- 

 exhausted salmon on my hook line, which I afterwards safely brought in. Striking at 

 the sinker is by no means rare with the salmon; this was the third I had had carried 

 away. I have several times seen the salmon strike the sinker within 6 or 10 feet of the 

 boat and strike at it several times in succession. 



There was no difficulty in following the school, although the later ruffled water 

 made the break less conspicuous. The friendly shags, murrs, and gulls came for their 

 harvest also, following up the salmon breaks for the demoralized anchovies. 



On the combing beach went the anchovies, the salmon, and birds, and more slowly 

 my boat, impeded by the necessity of fighting the hooked salmon. But we followed 

 on, finally into the jaws of the ground swell, where for half a mile in length on the 

 sand beach the salmon held the anchovies for at least two hours. Many of the ancho- 

 vies were driven upon the sand. 



Acclimatization in eastern waters. — Attempts have been made to 

 acclimate the chinook in many eastern waters. The earlier plants 

 were made under the name of California salmon, later under the 

 names of quinnat salmon and Pacific salmon. The latter, however, 

 is not specific, there being four other species of this genus in Pacific 



