HOW THE SALMON IS VANISHING 271 



water itself becomes so polluted that it is not palatable 

 or safe to drink. 



In daytime the sight of gluttonous birds feasting 

 upon carrion is bad enough, but if we could see by 

 night we would behold the mink, the skunk, the fisher, 

 and perhaps some other animals, as well as the grizzly 

 bear himself, all busily at work, either eating of the 

 foul mess or storing it up in a convenient place for 

 future use. The most pitiful sight of all, however, is 

 to see the dying fish floating down the stream, first on 

 its side and later on its back, without strength to swim, 

 the only sign of life being perhaps the unconscious 

 muscular action of wagging its tail. 



Another sight, and that a very common one, is where 

 one fish has weakened more in the vicissitudes of 

 the run than its mate, and while lying over upon its 

 side from sheer exhaustion its mate pokes it with 

 its jaws to keep stirring it up to further effort, until 

 the dying one becomes stranded upon some friendly 

 shoal, when its mate plunges away into deeper and 

 safer waters. Man's inhumanity to man has often been 

 harped upon, but the worst of men seldom become as 

 cruelly cruel as the salmon are toward each other. 



From the most recent observations of the present 

 " four-year " run of salmon it is safe to say that it will 

 show as great a falling off in actual returns as the 

 " four-year " run in 1905 did from that of its preceding 

 period, and if this prediction should prove true, some- 



