12 THE SALMON FISHEB. 



Pacific coast and BeVing Sea in spring and summer, 

 moving up sometimes a thousand miles and more (as 

 in the Yukon) until they are ready to spawn, after 

 ivhich most or all of those which have reached the 

 upper waters perish from the combined exhaustion 

 of the long journey and the labor of spawning. The 

 passage of the river is a sickly spectacle, maimed 

 -and decaying fish in myriads offending sight and 

 smell, and befouling the entire length of the water 

 course from the sea to its springheads. During 

 the mid-summer period* of their " run " they swim 

 In schools ten feet deep, or more, with ranks closed 

 up solid, so that it is impossible to thrust a spear or 

 l>oat-hook into the mass without fouling a fish. In 

 some inlets and estuaries on the Alaska coast I have 

 seen them jammed together so that they could not 

 move at all ; so that it is very easy to comprehend 

 ILOW it would be possible for a person to cross the 

 stream dry shod if a plank were laid across their 

 protruding backs. 



On the northern Pacific coast the tide rises some 

 eighteen feet (in some localities very much more), 



* The heaviest run of Atlantic Salmon is in the autumn. 



