THE PACIFIC SALMON 



401 



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 j^oung are floating toward 

 it from their birth-place, 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 Colum- 

 bia and Yukon Rivers, and their tributaries, it 

 "is the habit of salmon to ascend 

 for a thousand miles or more before 

 spawning!" 



The "run" begins with the advent 

 of spring, when the salmon tra-\'el up 

 the rivers until the)' can ascend no 

 farther. It is on these runs that 

 the fish congregate in such incredible 

 numbers that sometimes they actual- 

 ly crowd each other, and can be pho- 

 tographed 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 beyond behef. 



"When the Pacific salmon reach 

 maturity," says Mr. Cloudsley Piutter, 

 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 Pacif- 

 ic salmons never taste food after leaving salt 

 water, and their fast ends only with death. 

 This is true of all species of Paoifio 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 disappears from the 

 tissues, the flesh turns white, and the skin thick- 

 ens and embeds the scales till they cannot be seen. 

 By the time spawning begins the fish has lost 

 about twenty per cent of its weight, and some- 

 times much more. In fresh water, the jaws of 

 the males become much prolonged and hooked, 



and large canine teeth appear. The body be- 

 comes deep and slab-sided; and the skin turns 

 reddish in most species. No individual of either 

 sex of any species of Pacific Salmon ever re- 

 turns to the ocean after spawning." 



Concerning the Chinook salmon, Drs. Jordan 

 and.Evermann say that the run begins in the 

 Columbia River as early as February or March. 

 The fish move up without feeding, travel leis- 

 urely 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 



THE QUINNAT SALMON. 



miles from the sea. " Those which go to the head 

 waters of the Snake River spawn in August and 

 early September; those going to the Big Sandy 

 in Oregon, in .luly and early August ; those going 

 up the Snake to Salmon Falls, in October ; while 

 those entering the lower tributaries to the Co- 

 lumbia, or small costal streams, spawn even as 

 late as December." 



"The spawning extends over several days, the 

 eggs being deposited upon beds of fine gravel, 

 in clear, cold mountain streams." The tempera- 

 ture of the water must be about 54°, and if on 

 arrival it is much above that, the fish wait until 

 it lowers. ("American Food and Game Fishes.") 



A very remarkable feature about the spawn- 



