9 



resort; and to reach them, they Avill make the most extraordinary exer- 

 tions. Sahnon are cau,a;ht by the Indians in the small streams that 

 empty into the Sacramento from the sides of Mount Shasta, at an eleva- 

 tion of more than four thousand feet above the level of the sea; to reach 

 which they must have passed throu<>;h at least fifty miles of almost con- 

 tinuous rapids. Bishop Farr states that salmon are also caught in the 

 headwaters of Snake Eiver, east of Salt Lalce. As Snake IJiver is a 

 tributarj' of the Columbia, these fish must annually make a joui-ney into 

 the interior of more than a thousand miles from the ocean. 



Some breeding fish enter our rivers during the Summer, but they do 

 not deposit their eggs until late in the Autumn. During the time they 

 remain in fresh water they lose in weight, and the quality of their flesh 

 deteriorates; its color becomes nearly white, and it ceases to be firm. 

 The great army arrives in our rivers after the first heavy rains. Upon 

 arriving they seek the brackish water in the vicinitj' of where the salt 

 and fresh waters meet. Here the}' remain for several days, or perhaps 

 weeks. ' It is supposed that the brackish water kills the small parasites 

 which attach to them in the ocean. It is this instinct that retains them 

 in brackish water that gives to Eio Yista its prominence as a fishing 

 point. 



The salmon, like most other fish, reproduces its kind from eggs which 

 are extruded from the female fish in an undeveloped and infecund state. 

 The male fish performs his office of fecundation after the eggs are in the 

 water. It is a remarkable fact, that the salmon will return, year after 

 year, to deposit its spawn in the particular stream in which it was 

 hatched. Salmon hatched artificially in Scotland and icept in breeding 

 ponds, were, for several years, marked before being dismissed to the 

 ocean; the salmon, thus mai'ked, invariably returned to the stream in 

 which they passed their infancy, and, so far as is known, these marked 

 salmon have never been taken in any other river. The pair, having 

 arrived in their parent stream, find a gravel bed, where the water is 

 clear and cold. The female burrows a hole in the gravel, about four 

 inches deep, and of a diameter nearly equal to her length, then pressing 

 her body against the up])cr edge of the hole, the eggs are extruded and 

 fall into this nest. The male, who is in close attendance, extrudes his 

 milt into the water which flows over these eggs, and they are thus 

 fecundated. The female immediately busies herself in covering the eggs 

 with the gravel. This process is again repeated in a few days, as more 

 eggs become ready for extrusion, until the season's work is over, when 

 the fish return, poor and thin, and, after remaining for a short time in 

 brackish water, leave for unknown places in the ocean, to return the 

 following season, largely increased in weight. The only condition 

 requisite for the hatching of the eggs is, that cool pure water, free fron. 

 dirt or sediment, shall constantly pass over thQm. In from ninety to 

 one hundred and thirty days the young fish are hatched. For the first 

 twenty or thirty days they require no food, other than the yolk sac 

 which is attached to them. The young fish remain in the river from 

 ^one to two years before leaving for the ocean. It has been observed in 

 Scotland, where the artificial breeding of salmon was first largely prac- 

 ticed, that of a given quantity of eggs hatched in one season, about one 

 half the young fish would leave for the ocean the same year, while the 

 other half would remain until the following season. This has been 

 found to be the unvar3dng rule. No reason has been assigned why this 



