Robertson. — The Parent Fish as a Food Supply 159 



a fair state of preservation. I threw several into the ponds through 

 which the fry are liberated and was surprised to see the fry attack 

 them with such relish that in the course of a few days nothing but 

 the skeleton was left. 



Sockeyes in particular seemed very partial to them, and it was 

 a fine sight to see several hundred fry tearing into one carcass, 

 with as many more waiting down stream to catch the fragments. 



It was the first and only food I had ever seen sockeye fry care 

 for and thrive on, and on account of it they stayed much longer 

 in the ponds than usual. 



The following fall I buried a lot more fish in various ways to 

 find out the best method of preservation, but either because they 

 were fly-blown before burying or because frozen during the 

 winter, none of them were in the same condition in the spring as 

 those of the previous year. 



However, two hundred dog salmon that I had thrown into the 

 ponds in November came through the winter in good condition 

 and met with the same fate as the sockeye of the year before. 



Now, while the mode of preservation is still in doubt, the 

 results are most decidedly not so. I have learned that the bodies 

 of the fish must not be fly-blown before burying or frozen during 

 the winter, and if kept in the water it must be running and under 

 forty-five degrees temperature. 



There is no doubt that they are a natural food for fry, for in 

 the spawning streams the bodies of the parent fish lodge in log 

 jams and amongst the rocks and stay there till spring. Then 

 when the rising temperature of the water tends to decay, and 

 freshets disintegrate the flesh, the particles are snapped up by 

 the fry. 



I am quite convinced that a little experimenting will lead to 

 a sure way of taking advantage of this provision of nature; they 

 have accidentally been kept over winter in two different ways 

 and it can be done indefinitely. In connection with this I would 

 cite the testimony of a very old Indian who declared that the 

 hatchery fry were "no good because they had no mamma." He 

 said that after the fish had spawned they died above the eggs and 

 when the "papoose" came out in the spring they were assured of 

 an immediate food supply. 



