16 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES, 
Bay (Alaska) hatchery of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, were 
marked by the removal of the adipose and both ventral fins, and the 
fish then hberated in Tanner Creek, a tributary of the Columbia. The 
fish were in an apparently healthy condition when liberated. In 
order to make sure that they suffered no ill effects from the marking 
a few were held until the wounds had healed perfectly, and these 
were not affected adversely. 
During the summer of 1918 a number of marked fish were reported 
to have returned and been caught. 
During the same period close watch was kept on the Quinault 
River for the return of marked sockeyes from that marking experi- 
ment but none were observed so far as known. 
OCEAN HOME OF THE SALMON. 
All sorts of conjectures have been hazarded as to the ocean home of 
the salmon after the young fish have gone to sea and disappeared ap- 
parently from the ken of man. Many have conjured up visions of the 
vast schools of adult salmon surging along the coast hundreds of miles 
seeking for some suitable river in which to spawn, explaining in this 
wise the variations in the seasonal runs in different sections. Others 
think the fish go out into the greater depths of the ocean and there 
hide from man until the spawning instinct leads them back to the 
coast and thence to the stream in which they were born or planted. 
Discoveries of recent years have quite altered this uncertainty, and 
we now are reasonably certain that the vast majority of the salmon 
are comparatively near our coast line, while others stay in the bays, 
straits, and sounds virtually all the time when not in the rivers. 
Some years ago it was first noticed that king salmon would take the 
hook while in salt and brackish waters. At first only the anglers were 
interested in this fact, but as the demand for king salmon for mild 
curing became more insistent the commercial fishermen, attracted by 
the high prices paid, began to devote some attention to the fish dur- 
ing the early spring months, and soon trolling became a recognized 
branch of the industry. It was first taken up on a considerable scale 
in southeast Alaska in 1905.4 As the demand for the fish increased, 
the fishermen extended operations until almost all of southeast Alaska 
waters were being fished. The length of the fishing season was also 
increased until now only the severe weather of winter prevents them 
from fishing. However, the halibut trawls occasionally come up dur- 
ing the season with king salmon on them, showing that they are still 
on the ground. 
The above is also true to a certain extent of the waters of British 
Columbia and Puget Sound and to a lesser extent, so far as has been 
disclosed, of Monterey Bay and the Oregon coast. 
It has been known for some years that the silver, or coho, salmon 
would also take the hook under practically the same conditions as the 
king salmon, and the only reason this species has not been fished for 
to the same extent as the king has been because it was not large 
enough to be attractive to the mild curers, and hence there was a 
much lesser demand for it. 
¢Report on the Fisheries of Alaska. By John N. Cobb. Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 618, pp. 
18-21. Washington, 1907. 
