158 OBSERVATIONS ON A SALMON RIVER 



nection he told of a certain professor who 

 stood on a bridge across a stream, one 

 branch of which came from a region without 

 a lake, while the other came from a region 

 with a lake. The professor observed king 

 salmon going up both branches of the river, 

 but, after hours of watching, he had seen 

 red salmon invariably choosing the branch 

 with a lake. 



A recent conclusion of this same professor 

 is that salmon are " geared " to the river to 

 which they are native. He reached this 

 conclusion by long and patient observation. 

 Some streams ascended by salmon are very 

 short, while others, like the Yukon and the 

 Columbia, are very long. The former river 

 is fifteen hundred miles long, and the latter 

 is a thousand miles long. Salmon from a 

 short river lack the qualities of endurance 

 which are necessary for the weary journey 

 to the headwaters of a long river, often re- 

 quiring the entire summer, while salmon 

 from a long river lack the characteristics 

 necessary to make use of the conditions in a 

 short river, 



