54 



the salmon in their migration seaward may depend much 

 upon their supply of food, and that, while the fish are scarce 

 and their food abundant, they will not travel far from the 

 junction of the fresh and salt water. 



Granting that salmon might be caught by opening the river 

 and using proper nets, is it not manifest that the rapid stock- 

 ing of our rivers would be more seriously retarded by killing 

 half-a-dozen salmon now, when only a few pairs reach the 

 spawning beds, than by killing as many thousands a few years 

 hence, when every gravelly rapid over hundreds of acres will 

 be tenanted by spawning fish ? 



