390 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
the eggs cling together in a mass and to the bottom of the stream; 
they then commence to separate, and the gentle current sweeping down 
through the trough-like hole carries the egg out of the excavation, as it 
becomes detached from the mass, and onto the nest of stones below, 
where it tumbles from one stone to another, until it drops into one of 
the crevices, eventually finding its way to the bottom of the pile or 
nest, and there lies securely hidden away, well protected from preda- 
tory fish, until it is finally hatched. | 
It fone from forty to sixty days for the eggs to hatch, the time, 
depending upon the temperature of the water. After hatching the 
fish remain in the nest about twenty days, until the umbilical sac is 
exhausted, having at this time but one instinet—to hide and burrow: 
deeper into the nest. After the substance of the sac is consumed the, 
little fish approaches the surface to snap at passing particles of food, 
and in so doing is washed away from the nest and finally makes its way 
to the shoal water near the shore, gradually dropping downstream 
until the fall freshets come and carry it into the larger streams, and 
eventually into the ocean. | 
Saimon make their nests and spawn differently under different cir- 
cumstances. If prevented from reaching their spawning-ground, by 
late freshets or other obstacles, they will spawn in the river or deposit: 
their eggs in the muddy bottom of a pool, if there are no gravel beds 
available. In both instances most of the eggs are lost. By artificial 
means as much as 95 per cent of the eges are hatched; and in depos- 
iting the young fry it has been the custom at the Fort Gaston station 
to place them in the streams near the spawning-grounds five or six 
weeks after hatching. Young salmon ted abundantly in the ponds for 
four or five months before they are put in the streams acquire different 
habits, and are inclined to linger in the fresh water the year round, 
having become too strong to be carried out by the fall and winter fresh- 
ets against their inclination. The salmon is very much the victim 
of circumstances, and in his movements is governed more or less by 
freshets and the temperature of the water. From the latter he is most 
naturally controlled in seeking more genial surroundings. The early 
stage of a little salmon’s existence is made up of continuous alarms to 
avoid danger, and the commencement of his life is spent in hiding and 
darting about until he gains sufficient strength and activity to venture 
abroad for food, trusting to speed for safety. 
The method of taking salmon for spawn at Fort Gaston consists in 
running a wire fence diagonally across the stream, near the upper end of 
which is inserted a V-shaped trap made of the same wire stretched over a 
wooden frame; tlie pointed end of the trapis placed upstream and the wire 
fence extends to the shores from each corner of the lower end. In the 
lower face of the trap is a hole large enough for the salmon to enter, with 
converging steel rods, 18 inches long, extending inwardly from around 
the opening; these are pressed apart as the salmon enters and spring 
