SALMON FISHEEIES OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN. 
167 
Tlie August run of cliinook salmon consists of gravid fish near their spawning 
time. The flesh for this reason has undergone deterioration, and if canned constitutes 
an inferior j)rodiict, the sale of which will discredit the reputation which the Columbia 
Kiver salmon justly hold in public estimation. None of the August run of Chinooks 
probably ascends the Columbia above the Dalles. They spawn in the tributary 
streams of the Lower Columbia and in the main stream between the Dalles and the 
month of the river. 
RECOMMENDATIONS. 
Having in view the considerations above presented, there can be no doubt of the 
necessity of restrictive regulations to maintain the salmon fisheries of the Columbia 
Eiver. The enactment and enforcement of such regulations as may be necessary 
to this end is the iirerogative of the States occupying the Columbia Kiver basin. 
There is no iirecedent for the exercise by the General Government of control over 
the fisheries of our interior waters, except in so far as the forms of apparatus in use 
might be regarded as obstructions or impediments to navigation. 
AVhether the power to regulate the fisheries of interstate and bounding territo- 
rial waters is vested in the General Government or in the States is a subject which 
has ])rovoked, and will continue to provoke, controversy until the respective rights 
and powers of individual States and the General Government are duly ascertained and 
defined by the courts of last resort. Having reference, however, to the interests of the 
fisheries, there is no doubt that these interests would be best subserved by uniform 
and concurrent regulations coveriug the entire region in which any special fishery is 
prosecuted. 
In the case of the Columbia, we find that the great market fisheries for the salmon 
are prosecuted in the lower river, and the immediate evident advantage is to those 
who are engaged in the capture of the salmon or in canning them for the market. 
On the other hand, the nurseries for the young salmon, upon the abundance of which 
depend the ijroductiveuess and profit of tlie fisheries in the lower river, are in the 
remote tributaries and sources of the river in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. 
Regulations and restrictions of the net fisheries, so as to permit a reasonable 
number of salmon to reach their spawuiug-ground in the ui)per rivers, and protection 
of the salmon in these waters during their spawning season, in September and October, 
present the conditions to be fulfilled to keep up snp])ly, so far as this can be accom- 
plished by legal restraints. 
To effectively restrain or regulate the net fisheries requires the concurrent action 
of the States of Washington and Oregon. Effective protection to the salmon on their 
spawniug-gronuds can be established only by concurrent action on the part of Wash- 
ington, Oregon, and Idaho establishing a close season during the months of September 
and October. Here a serious difficulty arises. On the one hand it Avill be urged by 
the net fishermen of Washington and Oregon that any restraint on their operations 
will be burdensome to them without any corresponding advantage, since the fish they 
permit to escape their nets will be taken in the head waters to which they go before 
they have had an opportunity to spawn, and so they will be subject to serious losses 
and inconvenience without any compensating advantage. On the other hand, the 
citizens of eastern Washington and Oregon and of remote Idaho will be reluctant to 
impose any restraints on their own people in reference to the taking of salmon, for the 
reason that any increase in the fishery arising thereby will inure solely to the benefit 
of the fishermen between the Dalles and the mouth of the river. 
