up this new fishway into regions where they had never been before. 

 Thus there is evidence that though the alewife comes back to a definite 

 spawning ground, it will also seek new territory. 



Mb. W. E. Baebee, Madison, Wis.: The parent fish stream theory is 

 not nearly as hard to understand and believe as that the migratory birds 

 after traveling thousands of miles come back to their home nests. It 

 is true that demonstrations as to the migratory birds are easily made. 

 Strict account has been kept of their flights, and it has been found that 

 they cover the same territory and come back to the same nest each year. 



Mk. Titcomb : Dr. Belding's remarks on the alewife remind me of the 

 introduction of shad on the Pacific coast in California. Most of them 

 probably return to the stream where first planted, but they have spread 

 gradually until they are up in the Columbia River. I am not combatting 

 this parent stream theory, but the shad spreading on the Pacific coast 

 seem to furnish an example to the contrary. 



Me. Boweb: Perhaps it should be made clear that Mr. Titcomb does 

 not challenge the parent stream theory with respect to the Pacific salmon. 

 He has gone beyond that and has spoken of fishes to which the parent 

 stream theory has never been applied so far as I am aware. Shad were 

 introduced on the Pacific coast in the seventies and have spread widely. 

 I personally have seen shad in Alaska of the same species that I have 

 noted in the Potomac River in the East. The parent stream theory has 

 never been entertained, so far as I am aware, in regard to shad ; but I 

 believe that it is the consensus of opinion that the Pacific salmon return 

 to the parent stream. Dr. Charles H. Gilbert, of Stanford University, 

 California, the greatest authority on the Pacific salmon today, has demon- 

 strated clearly that they undoubtedly return to the parent stream, and 

 moreover, that they seek the particular side tributary where they were 

 originally hatched or planted. Dr. Gilbert bases his conclusions chiefly 

 upon a study of the scales of the salmon, thus securing a most accurate 

 life history of the fish. 



90 



