I 



/liiicricaii l-'islicrics Socicly. 157 



extent, as it is in these sniall stieuni.s that formerly so many fish 

 asoendcfi, and where at one time the ehances of fertih/.ation were 

 enhanced by the .q;reat amount of semen ejected l)y the mah?s, and 

 that now l)ut few ascend. renderiuL;- tlie chances of natural fer- 

 tilization almost to the point of ml. 'hat liie work of propa^atini; 

 the salmon should be carried on to the tullest extent. Rvery 

 stream or tributary that will \ield a million or more eja^_<,'^s should 

 have a sub station, and all the es;g;s possible taken, hatched and 

 the fry returned to the stri\-im, scattering them over as much ter- 

 ritory as ]'>ossi])le. This, in the o])inion of the writer, would be 

 a far hotter nu'thod. and the results in mature fish would be much 

 greater than to have large establishments, and turn out many 

 millions into an\- one stream, as each stream or ])()rtion of it has 

 but a limited su])pl\- of the natural food suitable for the young 

 salmon, and all in excess of the numl)er that will live upon the 

 food su])ply must necessarily perish ; and as most of these 

 streams are in a broken country where is is almost impossible to 

 give the fry anything like a wide distribution, they must neces- 

 sarily be put out over a ver\- small area. Tims it will be readily 

 seen that in such instances it would be an easy matter to over- 

 stock the streams, and even if none died from starvation, some 

 w(.ul(l become stunted, and never reach a normal size, besides 

 cannil)alism would be encouraged ; the larger and stronger ones 

 eating the small weak ones. It has been noticed that in the past 

 few } ears the numl)er of undersized salmon that were taken were 

 steadily on the increase, the last esason showing a far greater 

 number than any previous season. The only logical conclusion 

 that the writer has been able to reach is that this is the result of 

 overstocking the streams where the work of propagation is car- 

 ried i)n to anv extent, numbers of young fish being stunted for 

 lack of sufficient food, and although they live to mature, they 

 never groAv to the normal size. This line of reasoning will un- 

 doubtedlv be objected to by some on the ground that nearly all 

 these undersized lish are males, but it is known that the tish of 

 any one season's hatch do not reach maturity together, that is, 

 a portion will return the third \ear, while another portion will 



