20 THE SALMON FISHEK. 



Undoubtedly there is but a single run of Arctic 

 salmon. Their season is very short and they have 

 scarcely time, between the melting and the freezing 

 of the rivers, to make their periodical visit to the sea 

 and return. In July the Indians spear them while 

 ascending the rapids, which are then free of ice; but 

 by the end of August everything is tight again, and 

 the salmon are left to complete their duties of pro- 

 creation and their subsequent recuperation, neither 

 of which, it may be supposed, is rapid. Generally 

 the fish run up in detached and straggling bunches, 

 but occasionally in "long drawn schools." 



All this is new and interesting. I f t illustrates the 

 philosophy of prompt adaptation to environment 

 and demonstrates why fixed rules cannot be predi- 

 cated upon desultory observations of fish movements. 

 The circumpolar habitat of The Salmon has been. 

 yery little investigated. Arctic explorers have paid 

 scarcely any attention to the fish fauna of that zone, 

 not even attempting to catch fish for the mess table, 

 but depending almost wholly on ships' stores for 

 subsistence. Some of them, like the ill-fated Dan- 

 enhower party on the Lena Eiver, in Siberia, died of 

 starvation with an abundance of fish life all around 



