230 TROUT AND SALMON 



crowded for room and can be caught with pitchforks. Yet this 

 once was true of the sahnon in several streams of the Pacific 

 coast. The bears of Alaska grow big and fat on the salmon 

 which they catch with the hooks that Nature gave them. 



The five species of Pacific salmon form a remarkable 

 group. They lead all fishes in annual commercial value; they 

 are the most abundant of all fishes that inhabit fresh water; 

 they traverse very great distances to reach their spawning- 

 beds, and they all die immediately after spawning! 



The sea is the home of all the Pacific salmon, and except 

 when the young are floating toward it from their birthplace, 

 it contains their food. Of their life in the sea little is known. 

 They are nowhere numerous, and trolling for them in salt 

 water is interesting sport. 



Throughout the months of spring and summer the salmon 

 leave the sea, enter the large rivers — and many small ones, 

 also — and proceed upward for hundreds of miles, to deposit 

 their eggs as far as possible from salt water. In the Columbia 

 and Yukon Rivers, and their tributaries, it "is the habit of 

 salmon to ascend for a thousand 'miles or more before spawn- 

 mg! 



The "run" begins with the advent of spring, when the 

 salmon travel up the rivers until they can ascend no farther. 

 It is on these runs that the fish congregate in such incredible 

 numbers that sometimes they actually crowd each other, 

 and can be photographed en masse. They rush up rapids, 

 and if cascades or low water-falls are encountered, they leap 

 atop of them with a display of energy and activity that is, 

 when first heard of, almost lieyond belief. 



