270 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 
Where the salmon lived and where they went between these spawn- 
ing seasons was formerly a deep mystery, but of late observations seem 
to indicate that they spend the other months along the Pacific Coast in 
the various bays, sounds and inlets. When they are born in the fresh 
water, they go out to sea; and apparently do not return again until the 
fourth year or older, when they come back to spawn and die. 
It is this curious instinct that makes possible this great industry. 
They practically all spawn in all the rivers along the Pacific, northward 
from the Bay of San Francisco up to the Arctic Ocean. When they 
enter the rivers, which they do in incalculable numbers, they are caught 
by every species of device known to the ingenuity of man. Nets of all 
kinds are the popular methods; but fish wheels, something like the 
stern wheels of a Mississippi river steamboat, are also used with great 
effect. These wheels in their revolutions lift the salmon out of the 
water and drop them into a flat bottom barge. 
The essential problem is that there shall be enough salmon escape 
and go up the river to spawn. Otherwise it is only a question of time 
when the whole salmon race would be extinct, because of not being 
allowed to breed. This is the greatest and most serious danger for this 
fish. The natural greed of man is apt to overlook this fact in a short- 
sighted way, without any regard to the future. 
There is also great danger to salmon fisheries from the pollution 
of streams, since the salmon, both old and young, require pure, cold 
water. The salmon also suffer greatly from innumerable natural ene- 
mies, but none are so fatal to them as man. 
In order practically to prevent salmon from being exterminated 
the government has undertaken to breed them artificially. ‘So the 
United States Bureau of Fisheries operates a number of large and well- 
equipped hatcheries. This is done also by the state governments of 
California, Oregon, Washington, the Dominion of Canada, the Provinces 
of British Columbia, and certain private companies. The salmon are 
caught on their way up stream, both male and female. The females 
are stripped of their eggs, which are fertilized by the milk of the males. 
This is a hand process, but of late it is superseded by an incision where- 
by the eggs are taken from the female in a much more satisfactory way. 
The eggs are placed in a combination of troughs and baskets. Fresh 
water is constantly provided, and it is absolutely necessary that the 
dead eggs be removed as fast as they become evident. This is done 
largely by the injection of a salt solution, which has superseded the old 
process of picking out these dead eggs by hand. Upon the injection of 
this salt solution in the hatching troughs, the good eggs sink, and the 
bad ones remain afloat and are easily removed. 
The young ‘‘fry,’’ as ‘they are called, are kept in the troughs and 
fed until they become about four or five weeks old. They are then 
placed in artificial ponds for a time, and later on transferred to natural 
ponds. When they have grown large enough to take care of themselves 
they are placed in the rivers and allowed to seek their natural home in 
the sea. 
Since 1873 there has been distributed on the Pacific Coast over 
six billion of these fry. Their annual distribution during the past ten 
years varies from three hundred million to five hundred and sixty 
million. E 
When the salmon are caught they go through the various processes 
of dressing, cleaning, cooking and canning, the canning industries being 
situated immediately on the rivers where the salmon have been netted 
and trapped. 
