THE GAME FISHES OP THE WOELD 



enter small rivers and spawn in them. Fishes of many sizes 

 are seen in the streams at the same time, and in the Fraser Eiver 

 in the fall, Dr. Jordan found fully developed salmon as small as 

 eight inches, but not showing the sexual hooked jaws found in 

 older fishes. The salmon average larger in the northern rivers. 

 Thus the average weight in the Columbia Eiver of the qidnnat 

 is twenty-two pounds, and fishes of sixty, eighty and one hundred 

 pounds are taken. In the Sacramento, which reaches the ocean 

 at San Francisco, the average salmon is sixteen pounds. It is 

 believed that the very large salmon are those individuals which 

 for some reason have failed to spawn and have in some way avoided 

 the fate of all spawning fish here, which is beheved to be death. 



The fish perform feats of remarkable valour in jumping 

 falls in aU rivers, and their persistency is often pathetic. 



' Here, when the labouring fish at the foot arrive, 

 And knows that by his strength but vainly doth he strive. 

 His tail takes in his teeth ; and bending like a bow 

 That's to the compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw ; 

 Then springing with his tail, as doth a little wand 

 That bended, end to end, and flirted from the hand, 

 Far off itself doth cast ; so doth the Salmon vaut. 

 And if at first he fail, his second somersaut 

 He instantly assays, and from his nimble ring 

 Still yesting, never leaves until himself he fling 

 Above the streamful top of the surrounding heap.' 



In early days in Alaska they frequently fiUed the rivers ia places 

 in an almost soM mass, and at certain falls the bears congre- 

 gated to catch the salmon that missed the jump and fell out upon 

 the rocks. On entering the rivers it is supposed the fish do 

 not feed, but I have seen a salmon chasing small fry in the 

 Feather at Big Meadows — a long distance from the sea. The 

 stomach contracts, and theoretically, and in the greater number 

 positively,! the salmon does not feed, and the explanation of their 



^ In certain rare instances food has been found in the stomach of a 

 spawning salmon. 

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