i 1884] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



369 



vent the salmon from going up the Wilhamette any further, 



and naturally turns, them back: into the Claekamus, if they 



missed that .river m the first place. Then, if necessary, the 



Glacis so obstructed that every salmon coming up 



Ban be stopped in front of the fishery. The river is a favorite 



ion, as it must necessarily he, with its cold, 



and swift running water and, before canning on the 



ubia. began, the Claekamus was famous for its hundreds 



of thousands of magnificent spring salmon that used to swarm 



up its channel to spawn. 



But the establishment of the station came too late. Already 

 —this was in 1877— there were fifteen or twentv canneries on 

 the Columbia below the mouth of the Wilhamette, ami with 

 thousand miles or nearly of drift nets waylaying the 

 ascending fish, the main river became so depleted of parent 

 salmon that those that reached the Claekamus in 1877 were 

 but a sorry fragment of the. immense shoals that originally 

 eanie up the stream to spawn. 



It was too late. Had the station been established ttv el ve 

 years before, twenty million eggs of the best variety of salmon 

 in the Columbia River could have been taken there 

 J ear, The time has gone by now for that, and only a few 

 million egg's can be taken in a season on the Claekamus, until 

 some legislation allows a larger proportion of the- parent 

 salmon to reach the river. 



Tlus station was partly destroyed by a hurricane a few 

 pears ago. and has been abandoned for the present. 



Unfortunately the same objection which applies to the 

 Claekamus River as a hatching station for producing young 

 salmon on a large scale, viz., the enormous yearly catch of 

 salmon on the Columbia below the Claekamus, also applies to 

 all other good locations in the Columbia River basin, or rather 

 what were originally good locations. Twenty years ago there 

 were scores of "places on the a&uents of the Columbia where 

 ten to twenty million salmon eggs could have been obtained 

 annually, because such an enormous quantity of salmon ran 

 up the Columbia that they swarmed hi thousands into each of 

 these spawning streams to deposit their eggs. 



Now that, every season as the salmon come up to spawn, 

 hundreds of thousands of them, I might almost say millions, 

 are caueht for canning, there are not enough left to distri- 

 bute themselves in very great numbers in each of their thou- 

 sand spawning beds tip the river, and it will never again, in 

 my opinion, be very easy to find more than oue or two places 

 in the Columbia Raver* basin, where twenty million sahnon 

 eggs can be. annually obtained unless some legislation protects 

 the salmon on then - upward journey, or artificial hatching, 

 simultaneously carried on at various independent localities, 

 increases the number of salmon in the river. 



I have made three explorations of the Columbia River for 

 the purpose of finding a good place for getting salmon eggs on 

 a large scale, the last time under the direction of the United 

 States Commissioner of Fisheries, following tho Columbia, ex- 

 cept around the Great Bend, all the way from the Rocky 

 Mountain divide, where you can step across it (here called 

 Deer Lodge River), to the bar at its mouth where it is fifteen 

 miles across, and I am convinced that the salmon do not now 

 come up to any one of their famous original spawning grounds 

 in such quantities as to make it an easy thing to get twenty or 

 even ten million eggs a year from any' of them. 



I must except some places (notably the foot of Shoshone 

 Falls in Idaho) on the tributaries of the Snake River, now 

 difficult of access, where it is possible perhaps, if the attempt 

 is made soon enough, to obtain sufficient spawners for large 

 operations in hatching. I will also except the mouth of the 

 Little Spokane River in Washington Territory, where there is 

 a most excellent location for a hatching station, and where 

 perhaps ten million esgs a year could be collected, if the state- 

 ments made about the number of salmon that come up the 

 river are at all true. These statements have not been sub- 

 stantiated yet for want of opportunity, and all we can say is 

 that thousands and thousands of breeding salmon used to fre- 

 quent this natural and favorite spawning ground, and perhaps 

 the canners leave enough now in the Columbia to still make 

 the Little Spokane a good collecting place for them eggs. As 

 my report to Prof. Baird recommends this point as a favorable 

 location for a hatching station, a description of some of its 

 advantages may not be out of place here, and the first I will 

 mention is its accessibility. Eight miles from the mouth of 

 the river, over a remarbably hard and level road, is the 

 town of Spokane Falls, a new, but thriving and promising 

 settlement of perhaps 3,000 inhabitants. This town is situated 

 on the line of the Northern .Pacific Railroad, and is in daily 

 communication with the rest of the world by mail, telegraph 

 and railroad, the railroad being one of the great trans-conti- 

 nental thoroughfares of the country. 



These general facts alone are sufficient to show the accessi- 

 bility of the location without the necessity of mentioning 

 details. 



The water supply at the mouth of the Little Spokane for 

 hatching the eggs is practically unlimited. As there is a 

 strong cm-rent in the river, and as the water does not rise till 

 after the spawning season and hatching season are over, the 

 water can be safely raised from the river itself by a current 

 wheel, as at the McCloud River Station, and this being the 

 case, any required quantity of water can be brought to the 

 hatching house at a small expense. The location is also favor- 

 able for obtaining water conveniently. The river does not 

 ever rise more than a few feet, and consequently the hatching 

 house can be erected not very far above the low water mark. 

 A small current wheel will, therefore, be sufficient to raise 

 the water to the hatching house, and the adjacent land is so 

 favorable for btuldmg on that the wheel can be placed veiy 

 near the hatching house, which will render unnecessary the 

 construction of a long flume from the wheel to the hatching 

 house. As the river does not rise, till the hatching season is 

 over, the wheel need not be protected from drift wood, nor 

 arranged with reference to the rising and falling of the water. 

 These are great conveniences, and on the whole it may be 

 said that the water supply may be safely depended upon in 

 every respect. The location is also remarkably favorable as 

 to availability. Fortunately the adjacent country is still in 

 its primitive state. When I visited the place in July, 1883, 

 many Indians were encamped on the river bottoms, but I saw 

 no white men. It is true some claims near the river have been 

 taken up by white men, but they are not valuable and and 

 could be bought without much expense. It is therefore veiy 

 probable that the site of a salmon building station could be 

 obtained without much cost, and as there are very few settlers 

 up the river and no towns or villages, no objection would 

 probably be raised to collecting the parent salmon during 

 spawning season by means of a dam across the river. 



The Little Spokane is also of such a character that it would 

 be an easy matter to capture the breeding fish. Indeed, I 

 think a seining ground could be arranged so that nearly all 

 the spawning fish that come up to the river could be caught, 

 and furthermore, it being close to the main Spokane River 

 it would not be difficult to run two seining grounds, one on 

 each side, which would undoubtedly somewhat increase the 

 yearly catch of breeders. 



It would be a very easy matter to build a dam or salmon 

 rack across the river to keep the breeders on or near the sein- 

 ing ground. Indeed the frail structure that we saw the Indians 

 successfully erecting across the river shows how easy it would 

 be for white men, with then- superior appliances, to put a 

 salmon rack across the river, such as would be required to 

 answer the purpose of a breeding station. There being no 

 drought or freshet on the river during the season's operations 

 at the station, and, indeed, no material change at all in the 

 river, a very simple and readily-constructed dam would be 

 perfectly safe. This is a great advantage, as it often proves a 

 very difficult matter in a river subject to freshets in the 

 hatching season to put in an obstruction that is perfectly safe. 

 And last, but not least, the maximum rise of the river during 



the year is so inconsiderable, that there will never be any 

 danger of the hatching house and other buildings being washed 

 away, even if they are placed, as it is desirable that they 

 should be, close to the river. 



Besides possessing the essential qualification just enumer- 

 ated for a salmon breeding station, the Spokane location has 

 many convenient features about it to recommend it. In the 

 first place, it is in a good timber country, where lumber can 

 be easily and inexpensively obtained for building. Then the 

 roads in all directions are hard and good, even during the 

 rainy season, which is a merit which can be fully appreciated 

 only by those who have lived in other partis of the Pacific 

 coast, where the roads become practically impassable during 

 the rainy season on account of the great depth of the mud. 

 The ground is also almost level from the mouth of the Little 

 Spokane to the. town of Spokane Falls, which would make 

 communication with the town and freighting to and from the 

 , station very easy. The climate is also a great recom- 

 mendation to this place. ' It is never veiy cold nor very hot, 

 but the temperature is quite even, and consequently veiy 

 favorable for work of any kind. 



By glancing over what has just been said about the mouth 

 of the Little Spokane, it will be seen that it is known to be in 

 all essential points an unusually favorable location for a 

 salmon breeding station, If it should prove to be capable of 

 furnisliing an abundance of breeders, I should not hesitateto 

 recommend it emphatically as one of the best situations to be 

 found anywhere for taking and distributing salmon eggs. If, 

 however, it should fail to supply the required quantity of 

 spawning salmon, I do not know where we could look for any 

 one place on the Columbia River or its north fork which, by 

 itself, would be adequate and satisfactory, and I think wo 

 should be reduced to the necessity of going further from the 

 railroad, or erecting two or three separate stations at different 

 points. 



Before closing, allow me to mention a fact which may pos- 

 sibly be as much of a surprise to many of you as it was to me. 

 It is that there are no salmon in the whole of that portion of 

 the North or Clark's Fork of the Columbia, which flows through 

 Western Montana and Idaho, including that magnificent body 

 of wafei , Lake Pend d'Oreille in Northern Idaho. 



This fork of the Columbia, known as it flows westward 

 under the various names of Deer T odge River, Hellgate River 

 and Missoula River, has a length of about three hundred 

 miles before it reaches the Falls of Senniaewateen, just below 

 tbe outlet of Lake Pend d'Oreille, where it is believed the 

 ascending salmon are finally stopped from going any further, 

 and in the long stretch of river above this point clear to the 

 Rocky Mountains no salmon whatever are found. I was not 

 aware of this fact, and when we had crossed the Continental 

 divide, which was accomplished then in a wretched mud 

 wagon (called by courtesy a stage), and had descended the 

 western slope of the Rocky Mountain range far enough for 

 the Deer Lodge Brook to have become a respectable river, I 

 expected to find salmon very abundant, but to my great sur- 

 prise the people there were as unfamiliar with salmon in their 

 natural haunts as the people of this caty are, and vs ere nearly 

 as far from them. 



I found that there were three principal obstructions which 

 kept the salmon from ascending tue river. The first one from 

 the ocean is Kettle Falls, in Washington Territory, on the 

 main Columbia, 711 miles from its mouth. These falls are 

 about twenty-five feet in height at low water, but they are 

 not wholly impassable, for on the east side they are broken 

 into a series of cascades, through which the salmon can and 

 do get above the falls at certain stages of the water and pos- 

 sibly at all times. 



Fortv-two miles above Kettle Falls, the Pend d'Oreille River 

 (Clark's Fork of the Columbia from Lake Pend d'Oreille to the 

 main river is called Pend d'Oreille River) empties into the 

 main Columbia. Near its mouth, at a distance variously 

 stated from a few rods to twenty miles, is another fall, which 

 is undoubtedly a serious obstruction to the salmon. This fall 

 (it being on the Great Bend, I did not see it myself) is said to 

 be ten or fifteen feet in height. 



I heard of salmon being caught all the way up to the falls 

 of the Senmaewateen, so the salmon are obviously not all 

 stopped at the falls of the Pend d'Oreille, though probably not 

 a very large proportion get by them. 



About one hundred and fifty miles above these nearly im- 

 passable falls and not far below the outlet of Pend d'Oreille 

 Lake are the falls of the Senniacwateen, which, though not 

 over eight or ten feet in height, probably head off the com- 

 paratively few salmon that reach them and mark the highest 

 poiut, the ultima thule of the upward migration of the saboon 

 of Clark's Fork of the Columbia. I mention these facts, partly 

 because when I was in Idaho and Montana, there was a strong 

 feeling among some of the residents on Clark's Fork in favor 

 of opening a way for the ascending salmon through the ob- 

 structions just mentioned, and allowing them to come up into 

 Idaho and Montana, which they would undoubtedly do if they 

 could, although it is nearly twelve hundred miles from the 

 mouth of the Columbia to Deer Lodge City. 



I will merely add in this connection that a movement has 

 been started for obtaining the intervention of the Territories 

 interested, and if possible of the United States, for the pm-pose 

 of opening a passage for the salmon through the formidable 

 obstructions at the mouth of the Pend d'Oreille River, but in 

 my opinion these falls will be fotmd to lie in British territory, 

 and the undertaking mentioned will require the co-operation 

 also of the Dominion government. 



I need hardly say in conclusion that in my judgment the 

 sooner we get about this work of hatching salmon on the 

 Columbia the better. We have waited too long already. The 

 great opportunities of twenty years ago are all gone, and 

 every year makes the matter worse. 



Mills are going up, settlements are forming, railroads are 

 being built in this trans-Rocky Mountain region with surpris- 

 ing rapidity — all accelerating the decrease of the salmon— 

 and in a short time we may be glad to even get opportunities 

 that we scorn now. A great industry as well as an immense 

 food supply is at stake, and something ought to be done very 

 soon. 



FISHCULTURE IN CANADA. 



MR.W. F.WHITCHER, formerly Commissioner of Fisheries 

 for Canada, whose article condemning the system of 

 fishculture pursued in the Dominion, created such a stir some 

 time ago, now writes to the Montreal Gazette as follows: 



StR- Referring to "Hansard," of the 9th instant, I respect- 

 fully bring under notice the following part of a recent discus- 

 sion in parliament relating to fish hatcheries in connection 

 with an item of supplementary estimates. At p. 15S6 it is re- 

 ported thus: 



"Mr. McLelan.— * * * I stated to the house when the estimates 

 were under discussion, my opinion as to the success of the fish hatch- 

 eries, and the grounds upon which I bold the belief that they have 

 been successful. I take it from the reports of all the fishery overseers, 

 and I find from these reports that in the salmon rivers, wherever we 

 have placed and have been for years placing the young fry, these 

 rivers have held up or increased in their production, while rivers that 

 have been continuously fished through that period and have not been 

 supplied with fry are nearly fished out and have decreased in the 

 yield. And so until reference to the figures given by the Commissioner. 

 They sfwiO a considerable increase'of between 30 and 40 per cent, in 

 the total catch between 1871 and 1881. Taking the whole there is that 

 increase, but while there has been an increase in the whole, there 

 has been a large decrease in the rivers that have not been supplied 

 with the young fish and fed from the hatcheries, while ah the reports 

 from the officers for 1888, and for 1RS2 as well, show that the rivers 

 that have been supplied with fry have maintained their yield or 

 largely increased it." 



The words italicized are those to which I beg leave more 

 particularly to refer. "The figures given by the Commis- 

 sioner," are for the provinces in which fish hatcheries exist, 



and were taken by me froni Vol. 3, pages 280-87 of the census 

 returns for 1870 and 1880 respectively/ They showed an in- 

 crease, as correctly stated, but chiefly in districts unaffected 

 by hatcheries. Having since more carefully examined the 

 fisheries' schedules of the census tor 1880, 1 have discovered 

 (and called official attention to) a serious error in the summa- 

 tion of sub-districts, under the salmon column— 15,935 barrels 

 being reckoned in mistake for 7,233 barrels. The erroneous 

 figures, by which I was myself misled and have unconsciously 

 misleil the Minister of Marine and Fisheries, gave 3,187,000 

 pounds of salmon, while the corrected figures give 1,440,400 

 pounds. Artificial operations are carried on extensively in 

 that vicinity. The comparative totals "given by the Commis- 

 sioner," I may add in perfect good faith, which are adduced 

 as evidence of an increased catch of salmon witliin the decen- 

 nial period of "between SO and 40 per cent.," and which in- 

 crease is alleged to be due entirely to artificial hatching, would, 

 therefore, prove as corrected, a local difference of J, 740,000 

 pounds, and a general decrease of veiy nearly a quarter of a 

 million of pounds. I take the earliest opportunity that my 

 health will admit to amend this fault, lest the error should 

 creep into other calculations affecting the Canadian salmon 

 fisheries before its correction can be incorporated in the pub- 

 lications of the statistical department. 



Under ordinary circumstances it might be supposed that 

 such difference would not materially- "affect any deductions 

 from the total salmon yield of 1880 in the maritime provinces, 

 as the reports of the fisheries department should afford an ex- 

 act or corrective basis of computation. Unfortunately the 

 salmon catch for 1880, as given in the fisheries statements, is 

 63 per cent, less than that given in the census returns, even as 

 corrected. There was eveiy advantage, therefore, in prefer- 

 ring the census tables to compare data affecting artificial fish- 

 culture, although any person actuated by improper "motives" 

 would obviously prefer the former. If, however, the fishery 

 returns for 1870 and 1S80 be taken as a basis of comparison the 

 whole decline amounts to 2,804,847 pounds. The figures 

 ' 'given by the Commissioner" may, I reasonably submit, be 

 viewed as evidence not only of a desire to be accurate, but 

 also of the utmost fairness 'toward artificial fish hatching. 

 Knowing also the defectiveness of the departmental returns, 

 to which I so often and so vainly drew attention when in 

 office, and have of late years for that reason refused to sign, 

 I thought it safest to quote the census tables in preference to 

 the others. Altogether, therefore, the census affords a just 

 and even a generous measure as illustrating the practical re- 

 sults of artificial salmon hatching in Canada during ten con- 

 current years. 



Allow me, sir, in your columns, to apologize for having beon 

 the innocent medium through whom the Horn Mr. McLelan 

 has thus accidentally adopted data supplied by the blue books, 

 which, as revised, indicate a condition of things quite con- 

 trary to the desired result, and which may possibly have 

 assisted in producing the erroneous conclusion embodied in the 

 foregoing extract. Permit me, at the same time, to point out 

 that the case of Nova Scotia was instanced "by the Commis- 

 sioner" to show that in ten years, from 1S70 to 1880, the salmon 

 catch had declined over fifty per cent., as shown by the cen- 

 sus, while, according to the fisheries statements, it had fallen 

 from 1,345,905 pounds to 383,150 pounds. Above six millions 

 of salmon fry were distributed from the Nova Scotian hatch- 

 eries during this time. Here, again, advantage was given to 

 the claims of artificial hatching. 



The fact that a decrease in salmon of 168,200 pounds accord- 

 ing to the census returns, and of 2,304.347 pounds, according to 

 the fisheries statements, as admitted by the official reports, 

 forcibly suggests the advisability of revising whatever other 

 information purports to establish that "there has been an in- 

 crease in the whole." 



Regarding the alleged specific increase of produce from 

 rivers in which salmon fry artificially bred have been placed, 

 and the corresponding decrease from rivers dependent on 

 natural propagation, it is of primary importance that if such 

 realization is true, the fact should be clearly established. If 

 it can be proved there would be every reason to substitute 

 artificial for natural methods of cultivation. Its co-existence 

 with a general decrease is not incompatible. In order to test 

 such a theory the individual instances must be judged by the 

 relative proportions of natural and artificial supply forming 

 the mature stock. That a fluctuating decline of the salmon 

 fishery since 1874 has occurred throughout the easterly section 

 of the* Dominion of Canada it is useless and unwise, to deny. 

 A table appended proves this conclusively. The precise ex- 

 tent to which this declension has been arrested during a series 

 of years on the one hand by reserving and guarding the natu- 

 ral' spawning grounds, eradicating abuses, imposing restric- 

 tions in the modes and curtailing the periods of fishing, by 

 constructing fishways and removing obstructions to the ascent 

 of salmon, by opening up new and extensive breeding areas, 

 and regulating and protecting the inland fisheries generally, 

 and on the other hand by planting salmon fry artificially 

 hatched ; all of these elements form a fair subject for impar- 

 tial inquiry from which much useful and reliable information 

 might be derived. But any attempt to prove that all other 

 endeavors to augment or to maintain the salmon supply from 

 natural sources have entirely failed, and it is only from the 

 output of the hatcheries that improvement has been effected 

 or that normal production has been maintained, conflicts at 

 once with the whole history of the business, extending over a 

 series of laborious years ; since 1852, and disputes recorded 

 facts and figures existing m the journals of the House of Com- 

 mons and the departmental files, wnich if honestly examined 

 tell quite a different stray. It also runs counter to the knowl- 

 edge and unwritten experience, of many sportsmen and ob- 

 servers acquainted with the salmon fishery m all parts of the 

 country. The general and special reports of the principal 

 fishery officers, including those actually in charge of hatch- 

 eries, reinforce and confirm the entire record. 



Attention is drawn to the following table condensed from 

 the fisheries statements. It gives the gross produce of salmon 

 fishing in the river, estuary and coast districts of the provinces 

 of Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for each year 

 from 1869 to 1882, both inclusive. The particulars of 1883 are 

 not yet published, but the preliminary report of the fisheries 

 department announces that in New Brunswick and Nova 

 Scotia there is a considerable decrease, and a slight increase, 

 in the Province of Quebec, principally in districts remote from 

 the hatcheries. In the Miramichi and Restigouche districts, 

 where the best hatcheries are located, the yield is reported to 

 have been worse than anywhere else. 



TABLE OF SALMON OATCH IN QUEBEC, NEW BBUNSWIOK AND 

 NOVA SCOTIA FOB FOUBTEEN CONSECUTIVE YEABS. 



Pounds. Pounds. 



1S69 2,460,920 1876 2,615,555 



1870 4,012,002 1877 3,332.934 



1S71 3,646,475 1878 3,712,476 



L872.. .. 3,745,803 1879 ....3,102.038 



1873 5,542,929 1880 1,708,645 



1874 6,047,994 1881 , 1,282)669 



1875 3,413,192 1882 ,3,143,886 



The foregoing exhibit proves that in the three provinces 

 named, under the natural system there was a gradual increase 

 in the yield, indicative of progression up to the date when 

 artificial fish hatching was resumed in Eastern Canada, 

 namely, in 1873-74, and that, coincident with the artificial 

 operations, a steady dimunition is observable to the latest 

 date, 1883. It will be perceived that the quantity fell in 1881, 

 after eight years of artificial hatching, 38 per cent, below the 

 smallest catch under the natural system. The inclusion of 

 earlier operations in Western Canada is not essential, as it is 

 notorious that in Ontario salmon have been simply improved 

 out of existence. It is a mercy to the cause of genuine fish- 

 culture to omit details. 



In mentioning artificial salmon hatching as having been re- 



