PROPAGATION OF SALMON ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 
231 
comiiarisoii Tvitli the inimitable salmon of the Atlantic; and still another charge is 
brought up against it, viz, the old but true indictment that it does not rise to the fly. 
Nevertheless, with all these handicaps, it holds a high xdace among the Ashes of the 
seas for beauty, gameness, food value, and commercial value, in the two latter points 
of which, on account of its almost incredibly vast numbers, it completely eclipses the 
Atlantic salmon. In all the rivers in which it is found it occurs in great multitudes, 
and in the upper waters of these streams the old story, so hard for the skeptical to 
accept, is true, that the salmon are found at certain seasons so thick that one could 
cross the stream dry-shod on their backs if he could keep his balance. 
There is no month of the year when there are not salmon in the Sacramento, but 
their first appearance in abundance on the Pacihc Coast of the United States is at 
Santa Cruz Bay, in JanuaiA’. Here they are caught in very considerable numbers by 
hook and line, either by trolling or from a boat at anchor, as mackerel or perch are 
caught. Through January and February they are increasing in the main Sacramento, 
but do not become abundant till March, when they swarm up the river and are caught 
in great quantities in nets, as also in April. In May, June, and July they fall off, but 
reappear in great numbers iu August. They fall off a little in the latter iiart of 
September, and continue to grow scarcer in the main river till the end of the year. 
The number of fresh salmon shipped from Bio Vista to San Francisco in the year 
1872 was as follows: 
January 792 
February 1, 581 
Marcli 1,945 
April 3, 354 
May 4,408 
June 1,201 
,Tuly - 1, 145 
August 1, 496 
September 2, 335 
October 583 
November 441 
December 390 
Total 19,671 
Their movements in the Columbia are tpiite different. Here they make their first 
appearance in February, though in very small numbers. The main body iirrives in 
May, June, and especially in July, when the nin is enormous. The May salmon are 
largest. Perhaps the most correct view to take of the running of the salmon is to 
consider all the salmon as included in one run, beginning in February, increasing in 
May and June, and culminating in July; though they might also be legitimately 
divided into three runs, the first or meager run coming in February, March, and April, 
the second or full run in May and June, and the third or maximum run in July. After 
July they diminish rapidly, and soon almost entirely disappear from the main river. 
The writer has always been told by the professional fishermen on the Sacramento 
and Columbia that the salmon come down the ocean from the north to the mouths of 
the rivers, but their regular appearance on the coast of southern California early in 
January, their subsequeiit appearance in the Sacramento in February, and their still 
later appearance iu the Columbia iu March seem to indicate quite conclusively that 
the salmon came u[) the coast to these rivers from i^oints farther south, to which they 
have migrated for a sojourn during a portion at least of the winter months. 
It is probably tr ue of most anadromous fish which leave the ocean to go uii fresh- 
water streams to s^iawn, that they eat little or nothing after they get above tidewater. 
At all events, as soon as the quinnat “salmon, coming from the sea, strike fresh water 
their appetites begin to weaken, their throats begin to narrow, and their stomachs 
begin to shrink. This does not at first, however, entirely prevent them from feeding, 
but it changes them enough to enable them to overcome the temptation to return to 
