48 THE SALMON FISHEB. 



halt and deposit their spawn in the gravel wherever 

 the crisis overtakes them. Where the rivers are 

 short, like those of the east Atlantic coast, the sal- 

 mon return to the sea merely emaciated and greatly 

 reduced in weight, but in the Columbia, and like 

 rivers, which extend for hundreds of miles, they die 

 by millions, worn out and exhausted by their incred- 

 ible journey. Such as reach the upper spawning 

 beds arrive in sorry plight, mutilated, crushed and 

 almost shapeless. Fortunate are those which have 

 vitality enough left to be able to return to the sea. 

 Indeed, so great is the mortality, that it has been 

 generally believed that they never return at all. 



Observers declare that they seldom find any traces 

 of food in the stomachs of ascending fish ; and 

 hence, probably, has arisen the fable that they do 

 not eat. But such a supposition is contrary to all 

 the demands of nature. As regards spring salmon, 

 it would be impossible for them to sustain life for 

 the five months intervening until autumn, unless 

 they fed ; while in respect to the late autumn run, 

 they but follow the instincts of all pregnant crea- 

 tures on the eve of parturition. The latter eat con- 



