Proceedings 105 



"The red salmon grows to four years before it spawns, 

 and, like all of our Pacific salmon, they die after spawn- 

 ing. As they reach the age of four years before they 

 spawn, then whatever the fisheries may be of one year 

 is determined by the number that spawned four years 

 before. 



"There has been on Puget Sound, for a great many 

 years, one large run, with another large run four years 

 later, and the three intervening runs are all very much 

 smaller. That is apparently due to some period when 

 a great run escaped, and this great run has been con- 

 tinued right along. We do not know what the reason 

 really is, but we have supposed that all the weak runs 

 might be made stronger, if we would allow the fishes to 

 spawn, or to be spawned artificially, and properly planted. 



The condition in Puget Sound is extremely difficult. 

 Nearly all the salmon spawn in the Frazer River and its 

 tributaries, and really all might be caught in the Ameri- 

 can waters before they get to Canada, for we have the 

 first pull at them in the waters of the United States. 

 The ultimate result was that the whole thing went by 

 the board. There is a good deal of criticism now in Lake 

 Erie over the failing of the fisheries, and I presume that 

 some sort of regulation must be brought about in Puget 

 Sound. Now, there's no way in which regulation can be 

 brought about, except by the United States making a 

 treaty with Canada, because the States of Washington 

 and Michigan cannot make separate treaties with any 

 country, and no agreement of any sort could have any 

 validity unless it took the form of a treaty between the 

 United States and Canada. Canada is now allowed to 

 make her own treaties. I think the principle involved 

 in this international commission, and in the attempts 

 to unify the statutes, is a just one, yet it would involve 

 a thing we have never had — a series of United States 

 marshals looking after the fisheries on our side of all 

 international waters. That is a matter that presents a 

 good deal of expense and difficulty in itself. Any group 

 of regulations, such as we proposed, would need a good 



