402 



ORDERS OF FISHES— TROUT AND SALMON 



ing of the salmon is that after it is completed, 

 both males and females die! "This," says Jor- 

 dan and Evermann, "is true of all, whether 

 spawning remote from salt water, or only a few 

 miles, or yards, from the sea," and whatever 

 the cause may be, it "is general in its application 

 to all the Pacific coast salmon." 



Inasmuch as the bodies of many dead salmon 

 show injuries of many kinds, the belief has be- 

 come prevalent that the fish injure themselves 

 by striking against rocks on the run upstream, 

 and ultimately die from wounds so received. 

 But the investigations of Drs. Jordan and Ever- 

 mann have completely disproved this. It was 

 found that of the many salmon examined im- 

 mediately after arrival on their spawning grounds 

 in central Idaho, not one showed any bruises or 

 mutilations, and all were in excellent condition. 

 The mutilations which subsequently were ob- 

 served were obtained either by fighting, or by 

 pushing the gravel about on the spawning 

 beds. 



Salmon eggs hatch in about fifty days. During 

 the first six weeks, the egg-sac supports the life 

 of the alevin, which lives quietly on the spawn- 

 ing bed. By the end of six weeks the yolk-sac 

 is absorbed, and the young fry begins to float 

 •down stream toward the sea. When the jour- 

 ney is very long, the trip occupies several months, 

 •or even a year; and when the young salmon at 

 last reaches salt water, it is four or five inches 

 long, and is known as a "parr." Of course 

 "the young salmon feed all the way down, on a 

 fresh-water menu. 



Naturally the salmon millions of the Pacific 

 ■streams early attracted the attention and aroused 

 •the avarice of men who exploit the products of 

 Nature for gain. As usual, the bountiful supply 

 begat prodigality and wastefulness. The streams 

 nearest to San Francisco were the first to be 

 depleted by reckless over-fishing, and now some 

 of the fishermen of California solemnly aver 

 that the sea-lions are largely to blame for the 

 depletion of the Sacramento salmon fishery! 

 It is the rapacious and deadly net and salmon- 

 wheel, not the squid-eating sea-lion, that is to 

 blame. Regarding the conditions that in 1901 

 prevailed in Alaska, the following notes by 

 Mr. George Bird Grinnell in the " Harriman 

 Alaska Expedition" are of interest: 



"The salmon of Alaska, numerous as they 



have been and in some places still are, are being 

 destroyed at so wholesale a rate that before long 

 the canning industry must cease to be profitable, 

 and the capital put into the canneries must cease 

 to yield any return. 



"The destruction of salmon comes about 

 through the competition between the various 

 canneries. Their greed is so great that each 

 strives to catch all the fish there are, and all at 

 one time, in order that its rivals may secure as 

 few as possible. . . . Not only are salmon 

 taken by the steamer load, but in addition mill- 

 ions of other food fish are captured, killed and 

 thrown away. At times, also, it happens that far 

 greater numbers of salmon are caught than can 

 be used before they spoil. A friend of mine told 

 me of the throwing away of 60,000 salmon at one 

 time, near a cannery in Prince William Sound, in 

 1900; and again the similar throwing away of 

 10,000 fish. So something like 700,000 pounds 

 of valuable fish were wasted." 



In the Kodiak and Chignik districts, the catch 

 of salmon decreased from 360,000 cases in 1S96 

 to 90,000 in 1898, and in 1899 it was almost a 

 failure. In many of the small Alaskan streams, 

 the canning companies built dams or barricades 

 to prevent the fish from ascending to their spaivn- 

 ing beds, and to catch all of them! In some of 

 the small lakes, the fishermen actually haul their 

 seines on the spawning grounds. 



The laws passed by Congress to prevent the 

 destruction of the Alaskan salmon fisheries are 

 "ineffective, and there is scarcely a pretence 

 of enforcing them." To-day, the question is, — 

 will lawless Americans completely destroy an 

 industry which if properly regulated will yield 

 annually $13,000,000 worth of good food? Will 

 the salmon millions of the Pacific share the fate 

 of the buffalo millions of the Great Plains? At 

 present it seems absolutely certain to come, to 

 pass! In the preservation of fish and game, 

 ours is one of the weakest of civilized nations. 

 Very shortly we may expect to see the salmon- 

 hogs knocking at the doors of Congress to report 

 that the salmon of Alaska are "all gone," and 

 hear them plaintively petition for government 

 appropriations with which to restock those 

 waters, by artificial propagation. 



The time for strong, effective and far-reaching 

 action for the protection of that most valuable 

 source of cheap food for the millions, is noiv ! 



