608 MR. J. A. MILNE ON THE 



The strongest argument which I have heard in favour of the 

 prevailing idea that Pacific sahnon migrate to the sea as soon as 

 they can swim, is that many of the rivers which they frequent 

 are small, and, at times, are either dried up or frozen hard. This 

 argument was put before me by a gentleman who is largely 

 interested in the Pacific Coast fisheries and generally recognized 

 as an authority thereon. It therefore seems to demand an 

 answer. My answer is that I have examined only the scales of 

 fish hatched in the large watershed of the Fraser River, and that 

 possibly the fry of the Pacific salmon can adapt themselves to 

 varying conditions. It is known that our own salmon, which 

 generally migrate to the sea at two years of age, may enter it at 

 one year without hurt, or may remain in fresh water for three, 

 four, or even five years where the circumstances, as in Norway, 

 make it desirable for them to do so. 



But, even supposing that they can adapt themselves to a 

 certain extent, I fail to see how any salmon can perpetuate its 

 species in a river which is frozen absolutely solid in wintei', or 

 which is bone-dry in summer. In fact, I believe that the fish 

 that run into small rivers where such conditions prevail have not 

 been hatched in them at all, but are really natives of one or other 

 of the large river systems, and that, Avhen they get into one of 

 these small rivers, they become at once of no further use to their 

 own species, and might as well all be promptly utilized as food 

 for the good of ours. 



For a fact which supports this belief I have only to refer to 

 what Mr. W. L. Calderwood says in a communication to the 

 'Salmon and Trout Magazine' for December 1912, page 24. He 

 thei-e describes Capt. Callbreath's hatchery in Alaska. I am not 

 now concerned with the hatchery itself, but with the fact that it 

 is on a river, the Jadeska, only half a mile long, which runs out 

 of a small lake. A dam has been thrown across the river, only 

 100 yards from the mouth, so as to intercept all fish, and enable 

 the operators to select the Sockeyes and refuse the other salmon. 

 In addition to this dam a fence of racks has been erected having 

 at one place a trap. Here the Sockeyes have been taken out and 

 lifted over the dam, if not required for the hatchery, while the 

 other species have been left below. This selection has gone on for 

 eighteen years, and still continues, although the Sockeye hatchery 

 was a failvu'e and hatching ojaerations were discontinued in 1906. 

 Mr. Calderwood says : — " It is an interesting point that, although 

 the natural and artificial propagation of the Hmnpback and Dog 

 Salmon were entirely discouraged, the number of these fish 

 continued apparently undiminished." He adds, and this is my 

 point, " The moral may be that the fish in this river, like the 

 fish in other small rivers, are largely drawn from other sources." 

 But, in this case, as none but Sockeyes have been admitted 

 to breed, it would seem proper to substitute the word " entirely *' 

 for the word " largely," and I submit that what applies to one 

 small river may equally well apply to them all. 



