266 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



diving in the clear and ice-cold streams of this far 

 northern clime on their journey to the very spot which 

 their unerring instinct assures them is their own birth- 

 place. 



Besides the sock-eye and the spring salmon, there 

 are the humpback, the blueback, the silver and the dog 

 salmon, but only the first two species visit the Bear 

 Eiver, and none of the others equal the sock-eye in 

 brilliancy of coloring. 



Mr. Babcock's mission was to gauge as accurately 

 as possible the dimensions of the "run" of sock-eye 

 salmon for the present year. 



When the salmon eggs are hatched out and the 

 young fish are able to travel to the ocean, if they reach 

 it without being devoured by their numerous enemies 

 by the wayside, they will surely return four years after 

 to spawn and to die. Thus in four years the fish which 

 were then being hatched, or those that survive, will 

 return to carry out nature's injunction to perpetuate 

 the species. 



In Commissioner Babcock's report for 1906 he makes 

 the following warning statement : 



" In view of the fact that the catch of 1903 was 

 sixty-two per cent, less than that of the previous fourth 

 year, 1899 ; that the catch of 1894 was sixty-six per 

 cent, less than that of 1901 ; and that the catch of this 

 year is twenty-six per cent, less than that of 1902, no 

 other conclusion can be reached but that the great 



