484 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



advance as if they had no time to lose, as indeed they have not, and hasten, apparently at the top 

 of their speed, to their spawning destinations. This is illustrated by the fact that it is six or seven 

 months before the early runs of the Sacramento Salmon, which enter the Golden Gate in November 

 and December, reach the sources of the river at Mount Shasta, four hundred miles from the river's 

 mouth, while the later runs, which reach Rio Vista about the 1st of August, arrive at the McCioud 

 River, two hundred and fifty miles distant, in ten or twelve days. 



When they have reached the vicinity of their spawning grounds they seem to rest two or 

 three weeks in deep holes and eddies of the river, until they are just ready to build their nests, 

 and then they emerge from their holes and literally cover the rapids for miles, in the clear shallow 

 water of which they can be seen from the river banks by hundreds. They now, comparatively 

 speaking, lose their fear of danger, and will hot leave the places they have selected unless very 

 closely approached, and then they will persistently return again and again unless actually driven 

 off and kept off. Here comes in once more very noticeably the marvel of their living without 

 food, for they now for many days stem the force of powerful currents every moment, day and 

 night, not only without partaking of food, but in many instances without having taken any food 

 for months. A copious rain starts a movement along the whole line from the river sources to tide 

 water, except where the flsh are actually engaged in spawning, and during the rain the river 

 currents seem to be full of Salmon eagerly striving to reach higher portions of the stream. 



Spawning habits. — After the Salmon have occupied the rapids a short time, they pro- 

 ceed to build their nests and deposit their eggs. They scoop away the gravel from a selected 

 spot with their noses and sweep it off" with theii' tails, until they have made clear a spot a few 

 feet in diameter, usually about circular in shape, and depressed towards the center, not unlike in 

 form a common hen's nest. The eggs and milt having been deposited, the nest is covered over 

 again with gravel by the parent flsh, which use their noses and tails as before to move the gravel. 

 This being done, they seem, at least on the upper tributaries, to act as if they reaUzed that their 

 life-work was ended. They do not hasten back to the ocean, where, if they reached it, they would 

 regain their pristine health and vigor, but they hover about the vicinity of their spawning ground, 

 growing weaker, more emaciated and diseased every day, till death comes to their relief. 



Having briefly traced the Salmon's career from the ocean to the final stages of its journey 

 and its life, let us look for a moment at the various changes which gradually transform it from the 

 healthy and magnifipent creature of the ocean to the pitiable emaciated object calmly awaiting 

 its final summons at the river's source. 



When the Salmon come into the rivers from the ocean they are royal creatui-es wearing a 

 beautiful silvery coat and possessing rare symmetry and immense vitality and muscular vigor. As 

 long as they stay in tide water, there is saltness enough in it to keep up their appetites, and they 

 are usually sufficiently successful in their foraging to hold their own. But the moment they cross 

 the line into the fresh water of the rivers above them they lose their appetite, they take no more 

 food, and from that day they fall off in symmetry, beauty, and vitality. This physical deterioration 

 always bears a constant ratio to the proximity of their time of spawning, and regularly increases 

 as this time approaches. As this spawning season occurs at different periods at different locations, 

 no specific time can be named for their successive stages of deterioration, but taking the salmon- 

 breeding station of the United States Fish Commission on the McCloud River as a point of obser- 

 vation, it is noticed here that the Salmon which pass the station in March and April are very much 

 like the tide water fish. In May and June they are still in their prime. In July they change rapidly 

 for the worse, and by the end of that month their silvery look is gone and they are of an olive- 

 green color. The males are deeper and the females are broader. Their scales are nearly absorbed 



