SALMON 231 



"When the Pacific salmon reach maturity," says Mr. 

 Cloudsley Rutter, in Country Life, "they seek fresh water 

 to spawn. As soon as they leave their accustomed salt- 

 water food, they stop eating. It is not uncommon for fishes 

 of the Salmon Family to fast during the breeding-season, 

 but the Pacific salmons never taste food after leaving salt 

 water, and their fast ends only with death. This is true of 

 all species of Pacific salmons, and is without a parallel among 

 the higher fishes. 



"As the salmon advances into fresh water, the digestive 

 organs shrivel to one-tenth their natural size, all the fat dis- 

 appears from the tissues, the flesh turns white, and the skin 

 thickens and embeds the scales till thej' cannot be seen. 

 By the time spawning begins the fish has lost about twenty 

 per cent of its weight, and sometimes much more. In fresh 

 water, the jaws of the males become much prolonged and 

 hooked, and large canine teeth appear. The body becomes 

 deep and slab-sided; and the skin turns reddish in most 

 species. No individual of either sex of any species of Pacific 

 Salmon ever returns to the ocean after spawning." 



Concerning the Chinook salmon, Drs. Jordan and Ever- 

 mann say that the run begins in the Columbia River as early 

 as February or March. The fish move up without feeding, 

 travel leisurely at first, but as they advance farther they 

 move more rapidly. Many of them pause not until they 

 have found satisfactory spawning-beds in the Snake and 

 Salmon Rivers, among the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, 

 more than 1,000 miles from the sea. "Those which go to the 

 headwaters of the Snake River spawn in August and early 



