468 
FOREST AND STREAM 
OCTOBER, 1917 
One of the two sets of racks placed across a river to stop 
the salmon 
When “ripe,” the salmon are seined and taken alive to 
the nearby hatchery 
THE TRAGEDY 
OF THE SALMON 
A MONAGAMOUS FISH-THAT PAIR OFF—AND MAKE 
THE LONG TRIP FROM THE SEA TO DIE 
IN THE STREAMS WHERE 
THEY WERE BORN 
By ERNEST ELVA WEIR 
The females are dispatched by a blow on the 
head and laid aside 
T HE life of almost every wild creature 
has in it the elements of tragedy of a 
sort. It is not known definitely that 
any wild animal dies what is termed a 
“natural death” of old age. The depreda¬ 
tions of man and of fiercer and stronger 
creatures of its own kind or others make 
every wild animal’s life precarious and full 
of unguessed tragedy. But in some cases 
the tragedy is so clearly not the natural 
result of carelessness or weakness and so 
entirely unescapable as to be peculiarly 
poignant and deplorable even in the eyes 
of man, its author. Such is the case with 
the salmon. 
T HE tragedy of the salmon starts 
with the vicious run of the fish up 
the rivers to the spawning grounds. 
All the salmon species return to the 
streams in which they were hatched or, at 
least, to streams in the vicinity of their 
birthplace. This rush to death, as it were, 
happens both in the fall and spring of the 
year and when the fish are of an age 
varying from four to six and one-half 
years, according to species. 
There are skeptical readers who may 
question how it is possible to affirm 
that the “silver horde” which travels 
up the rivers is composed of the same 
salmon which were hatched in those waters. 
This has been quite definitely ascertained 
by means of exhaustive experiments on the 
young fry liberated at various places along 
the coasts and rivers. At one time it was 
a favorite recreation for quite a number 
of Pacific coast people to mark salmon fry 
in order to find out the age at which they 
returned to spawn and the rate of their 
growth. All sorts of marks were em¬ 
ployed. The favorite was the removal of 
the adipose fin as the experimenters be¬ 
lieved that the fish would miss this the 
least of any. Sometimes a V or a U was 
punched out of the tail or the gill cover 
and in several instances tags were used. 
The results of the experiments of the 
government became so confused by reason 
of those of private individuals that in 1908 
the Secretary of Commerce directed that 
any person desiring to mark and release 
salmon in Alaska should first consult with 
and secure the written consent of the Com¬ 
missioners of Fisheries or of the agent at 
the salmon fisheries of Alaska. 
A LL sorts of conjectures have been 
hazarded as to the ocean home of 
the salmon after the young fish have 
gone to sea and disappeared apparently 
from the ken of man. Many have conjured 
up visions of vast schools of adult salmon 
surging along the coast for hundreds of 
miles. Others think the fish go out into 
the greater depths of the ocean and there 
hide from man until the spawning instinct 
leads them back to the coast and thence to 
the streams in which they were hatched. 
Discoveries o.f recent years have quite 
altered this uncertainty, and observations 
have tended to confirm the belief which has 
steadily been growing in favor for some 
time that the salmon either spend the 
greater part of their life in the bays, 
straits, and sounds, or else in the regions 
adjacent to the coast line. 
The reason they have not been found in 
these regions earlier is probably due to 
the fact that during the fall, winter, and 
spring months the weather on the north 
Pacific coast is such that fishing operations 
can not be carried on along the open coast, 
while in summer the fishermen are all busy 
on the spawning runs and have no time 
to devote to fish not arrived at maturity, 
which are probably feeding along the coast 
as usual. 
T HE Columbia river, which has pro¬ 
duced more salmon than any other 
river in the world, has had a most in¬ 
teresting history. Many years before the 
white man saw its waters the Indians vis¬ 
ited its banks during the annual salmon 
runs and caught and cured their winter’s 
supply of food. Along the shores of the 
river at The Dalles for 15 miles were 
notable fisheries where various bands, who 
lived south and north, had their respective 
fishing locations, and to which all others 
were forbidden access. They used spears 
