402 
ORDERS OF FISHES— TROUT AND SALMON 
ing of the salmon is that after it is completed, 
both males and females die! “This,” says Jor- 
dan and Evermann, “is true of all, whether 
spawning remote from salt water, or only a few 
miles, or yards, from the sea,” and whatever 
the cause may be, it “is general in its application 
to all the Pacific coast salmon.” 
Inasmuch as the bodies of many dead salmon 
show injuries of many kinds, the belief has be- 
come prevalent that the fish injure themselves 
by striking against rocks on the run upstream, 
and ultimately die from wounds so received. 
But the investigations of Drs. Jordan and Ever- 
mann have completely disproved this. It was 
found that of the many salmon examined im- 
mediately after arrival on their spawning grounds 
in central Idaho, not one showed any bruises or 
mutilations, and all were in excellent condition. 
The mutilations which subsequently were ob- 
served were obtained either by fighting, or by 
pushing the gravel about on the spawning 
beds. 
Salmon eggs hatch in about fifty days. During 
the first six weeks, the egg-sac supports the life 
of the alevin, which lives quietly on the spawn- 
ing bed. By the end of six weeks the yolk-sac 
is absorbed, and the young fry begins to fioat 
down stream toward the sea. When the jour- 
ney is very long, the trip occupies several months, 
or even a year; and when the young salmon at 
last reaches salt water, it is four or five inches 
long, and is known as a “parr.” Of course 
the young salmon feed all the way down, on a 
fresh-water menu. 
Naturally the salmon millions of the Pacific 
streams early attracted the attention and aroused 
the avarice of men who exploit the products of 
Nature for gain. As usual, the bountiful supply 
begat prodigality and wastefulness. The streams 
nearest to San Francisco were the first to be 
depleted by reckless over-fishing, and now some 
of the fishermen of California solemnly aver 
that the sea-lions are largely to blame for the 
depletion of the Sacramento salmon fishery! 
It is the rapacious and deadly net and salmon- 
wheel, not the squid-eating sea-lion, that is to 
blame. Regarding the conditions that in 1901 
prevailed in Alaska, the following notes by 
Mr. George Bird Grinnell in the “Harriman 
Alaska Expedition” are of interest: 
“The salmon of Alaska, numerous as they 
have been and in some places still are, are being 
destroyed at so wholesale a rate that before long 
the canning industry must cease to be profitable, 
and the capital put into the canneries must cease 
to yield any return. 
“The destruction of salmon comes about 
through the competition between the various 
canneries. Their greed is so great that each 
strives to catch all the fish there are, and all at 
one time, in order that its rivals may secure as 
few as possible. . . . Not only are salmon 
taken by the steamer load, but in addition mill- 
ions of other food fish are captured, killed and 
thrown away. At times, also, it happens that far 
greater numbers of salmon are caught than can 
be used before they spoil. A friend of mine told 
me of the throwing away of 60,000 salmon at one 
time, near a cannery in Prince William Sound, in 
1900; and again the similar throwing away of 
10,000 fish. So something like 700,000 pounds 
of valuable fish were wasted.” 
In the Kodiak and Chignik districts, the catch 
of salmon decreased from 360,000 cases in 1896 
to 90,000 in 1898, and in 1899 it was almost a 
failure. In many of the small Alaskan streams, 
the canning companies built dams or barricades 
to prevent the fish from ascending to their spawn- 
ing beds, and to catch all of them ! In some of 
the small lakes, the fishermen actually haul their 
seines on the spawning grounds. 
The laws passed by Congress to prevent the 
destruction of the Alaskan salmon fisheries are 
“ineffective, and there is scarcely a pretence 
of enforcing them.” To-day, the question is, — 
will lawless Americans completely destroy an 
industry which if properly regulated will yield 
annually $13,000,000 worth of good food? Will 
the salmon millions of the Pacific share the fate 
of the buffalo millions of the Great Plains? At- 
present it seems absolutely certain to come to • 
pass! In the preservation of fish and game, 
ours is one of the weakest of civilized nations. 
Very shortly we may expect to see the salmon- 
hogs knocking at the doors of Congress to report 
that the salmon of Alaska are “all gone,” and 
hear them plaintively petition for government 
appropriations with which to restock those- 
waters, by artificial propagation. 
The time for strong, effective and far-reaching 
action for the protection of that most valuable 
source of cheap food for the millions, is now ! 
