THE SALMON FAMILY. 59 
waters of their parent rivers, or perhaps of any 
other river, at a considerable distance from the 
shore. In the case of the quinnat and the blue- 
back, their “ instinct” seems to lead them to ascend 
these fresh waters, and in a majority of cases these 
waters will be those in which the fishes in question 
were originally spawned. Later in the season the 
growth of the reproductive organs leads them to 
approach the shore and search for fresh waters, 
and still the chances are that they may find the 
original stream. But undoubtedly many fall salmon 
ascend, or try to ascend, streams in which no salmon 
was ever hatched. In little brooks about Puget 
Sound, where the water is not three inches deep, 
are often found dead or dying salmon, which have 
entered them for the purpose of spawning. It is 
said of the Russian River and other California 
rivers, that their mouths, in the time of low water 
in summer, generally become entirely closed by 
sand-bars, and that the salmon, in their eagerness 
to ascend them, frequently fling themselves en- 
tirely out of water on the beach. But this does 
not prove that the salmon are guided by a mar- 
vellous geographical instinct which leads them 
to their parent river in spite of the fact that the 
river cannot be found. The waters of Russian 
River soak through these sand-bars, and the salmon 
instinct, we think, leads them merely to search 
for fresh waters. This matter is much in need of 
further investigation; at present, however, we find 
no reason to believe that the salmon enter the 
Rogue River simply because they were spawned 
there, or that a salmon hatched in the Clackamas 
