26 
FISH CULTURE AND FISH PROTECTION. 
THE CHINOOK SALMON. 
(Oncorhynchus chouica; Salmo quinnat.) 
ITS NON-FEEDING HABITS IN FRESH WATERS. 
BY LIVINGSTON STONE. 
It is an admirable provision of nature that the great 
armies of anadromous fish that annually ascend fresh- 
water streams to spawn, where there is, practically speak- 
ing, no food for them, should be so constituted that they 
are not obliged, in order to sustain life, to feed in fresh 
water. Mammals are said to be more ravenous than 
ever at corresponding periods ; but in the case of anad- 
romous fishes, and possibly of almost all fishes at the 
spawning season that congregate in large numbers over | 
limited areas, a wonderful exception is made in their 
favor, in consequence of which they are not only not 
obliged, in order to support life, to feed where there is 
no food, but, in the case of Chinook salmon (Ouxcorhy- 
uchus choutca), their alimentary organs are so modified 
at the spawning season that they could not eat if they 
would ; and in consequence of this again they probably 
do not suffer from hunger, for if the ability to eat be 
removed, by natural causes, we expect nature to remove 
also the desire to eat. One can hardly help wishing 
that industrial armies had also been included in this 
exception at all seasons of the year. 
That such a provision of nature in the case of fishes 
is necessary—is absolutely indispensable, indeed—is 
obvious. The often-repeated story of salmon so thick 
