102 THE FOUNDATIONS OF ZOOLOGY 



reproductive organs, impels it to leave the ocean, and, entering 

 the mouth of a river, to journey on and on, often a thousand miles 

 or more, to its sources in the mountains. 



At this time the king of fishes, as it is well called, is in physi- 

 cal perfection, with few rivals in beauty, or strength, or fierce 

 energy, or indomitable courage and perseverance; but its strength 

 is soon exhausted in surmounting the obstacles, and in fighting 

 the rivals, which oppose its progress ; until, at last, worn and thin, 

 torn and mangled by battle, and battered by rocks and whirl- 

 pools, with its skin in rags, its fins crippled and bleeding, and its 

 whole body from nose to tail bruised and emaciated, nothing of 

 its kingly nature remains except the indomitable impulse, which 

 nothing can quench, still urging it onwards, until, if any life 

 remain, it at last reaches the breeding ground. 



One of the most magnificent species of this kingly genus was 

 so abundant in the Columbia River, before canning houses had 

 reduced its numbers, that the lower reaches were packed with 

 salmon, while the surface was covered with the drifting bodies 

 of those which had perished in fierce struggles with the crowd : 

 yet there is good authority for the assertion that not a single one 

 ever returns alive from the breeding grounds in the head-waters 

 of the St. Cloud. The whole race is wiped out, utterly exter- 

 minated, as soon as it arrives at maturity and physical perfec- 

 tion, in order that the perpetuation of the species may be assured. 

 The whole object and end of the beautifully coordinated body, 

 which is provided for by such admirable and wonderful adapta- 

 tions, which is built up so slowly and at so much cost, is rapid 

 and total destruction. 



The marvellous instinct which leads the young fish to the 

 ocean ; the organization and the habits which fit it for marine 

 life — all, in a word, which makes of the salmon our ideal of a 

 lordly fish — is worth nothing as compared with the welfare of 

 generations yet unborn. 



Scientific men who are not zoologists are fond of telling us 

 science has nothing to do with the Why ? and is concerned 

 only with the How .' but, in zoology, it is often easy to discover 

 why an action is performed, while we are very ignorant of the 

 structural conditions under which it takes place. As all the indi- 



