156 Tzvcnty-iiiiitli Annual Meeting 



the fish spawn on the reefs naturally. A female will select a spot 

 upon whicli to spawn, and if not disturbed will remain there, or 

 near by, occasionally turning upon her side and with a pounding 

 motion with her tail, and in fact with the whole body, eject a few 

 eggs ; this process is kept up at intervals of from ten minutes to 

 half an hour or more until all her eggs have been deposited, the 

 time consumed being from a couple of days to a week or more. 

 The spawning always takes place in a swdft current and where 

 the bottom is gravelly, and the pounding motion spoken of 

 loosens the gravel immediately beneath the fish ; and as the cur- 

 rent washes it from a few inches to a few feet down the stream, 

 often a hole from one to two feet deep is thus formed, and a 

 correspondingly large pile of gravel made just below. The eggs 

 that have escaped are consumed by the thousands of river wdiite 

 fish, suckers and the several kinds of trout with which these 

 streams abound, as the eggs and the gravel are washed down 

 wdth the current together. 



Jjut where, ail this time, is the male? Perhaps lying a few 

 feet below her, or perhaps a few feet at either side, DUt never 

 once approaching her. The writer has reached t!ie conclusion 

 that the only way in which the fertilization of the salmon egg has 

 ever been brought about, is at those times and places where the 

 fish are so very thick in the streams that during the hight of ihe 

 spawning period, the whole waters of these small streams are 

 completely permeated with the spermatozoa of the males; and 

 when one realizes that each large male produces a quart or more 

 of semen during the season, it will be readily understood that 

 large numbers of eggs could have been, and undoubtedly were 

 fertilized in this manner. But it will be observed that the num- 

 ber of eggs, or the percentage rather, that are fertilized in this 

 manner is just in proportion to the number of fish in the stream 

 during the spawning period, and that in the streams that but few 

 iish enter, the percentage of eggs that are fertilized is reduced in 

 the same ratio, and as the number of salmon entering the streams 

 is becoming less and less each season, it becomes more im- 

 perative that the \\ork of propagation be carried on to the fullest 



