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but it is a well-known principle of logic that an @ przorz 
argument like that has no weight whatever against the 
argument of one unanswerable fact. Noa przorz argu- 
ment based on the general principle that animals can- 
not live for months without eating can hold for a mo- 
ment against actual well-authenticated facts that prove 
that salmon have so lived without eating, and the Clacka- 
mas, McCloud and Rogue River hatcheries furnish 
these facts without limit and with overwhelming con- 
clusiveness. It is not claimed that the salmon thrive 
and get fat on this way of living. On the contrary, 
they get very weak and finally very much emaciated in 
fresh water. From the moment they pass above tide 
water they begin to fall off in weight, appearance and gen- 
eral condition, and they never under any circumstances 
whatever improve their condition afterward. They goon 
getting weaker and thinner. Every day their blood 
grows less red and less abundant, until at last their great 
store of strong red blood that they brought from the 
sea almost entirely disappears. Every day the rich 
layers of fat between their flakes of flesh become less 
noticeable till they disappear also. The dark rich pink 
of the flesh itself changes to a dirty white. Even their 
scales are absorbed into the body. Everything about 
their appearance indicates that a tremenduous draft is 
being made upon their physical organization. It is 
without doubt the draft that nature is making upon 
their flesh to keep their vital organs in the activity 
necessary to sustain life, and to develope the growing 
seed that will replenish the next generation. For here, 
let me also say,it is not claimed because salmon live with- 
out eating, that there is nothing whatever to keep their 
vital forces in action. This would indeed be incredible. 
This would be having a fire without fuel, an effect with- 
out acause. It would be quite as absurd as the per- 
petual motion theory—indeed, it would be, in a sense, 
a realization of perpetual motion. The fire must have 
fuel, the vital processes going on within the fish must 
