July, i9l8 
FOREST AND STREAM 
407 
as the organs of reproduction develop, 
these salmon gradually prepare for their 
up-river journey by a considerable stay (30 
to 40 days) in brackish water, and then 
stem the current at the rate of 2 to 4 
miles a day toward the spawning grounds 
many hundred miles upstream. But the 
bridal migration is in reality a death march, 
for in all five species of oncorhynchus dis¬ 
solution invariably follows the first act of 
procreation. Both parents die, whether the 
hymeneal bed be a thousand miles or a 
thousand yards from the ocean. The day 
of their bridal is the day of their funeral. 
An inexorable nature exacts a frightful 
penalty' at the climax of their passion. 
ill-fitting the prince of anadromous fishes, 
whose Atlantic congener returns none the 
worse to the sea. 
The same life history is enacted at Lake 
waters in which it had been planted tt> 
study' its habits and liberated 20,000 chi- 
nooks in Tuxedo Lake. Of these, not a 
single specimen was taken during the sum- 
At top, immature female, 19 months, Tuxedo; below, sexually developed baby 
male, 19 months, 2 lbs.. Tuxedo 
T HE symptoms which mark preparation 
for spawning also herald their death. 
When migration begins, the salmon 
enters on a fast that is never broken; the 
digestive organs contract giving the fish a 
gaunt, shrivelled, misshapen appearance. 
There is a consequent loss in weight which 
ultimates in 30 per cent. After the spawn¬ 
ing grounds are reached, and operations be¬ 
gin, the skin thickens, loses its silvery 
sheen, and becomes 
discolored and blotched 
with ulcerations, the 
fins fray', parasites at¬ 
tack the gills and in¬ 
testines, the males de¬ 
velop the hooked jaw 
which gives the species 
its name ( onco¬ 
rhynchus or hook- 
snout) armed with 
enormously' enlarged 
front teeth, fungus 
blinds the eyes, and the 
i 
Chinook salmon, 20 months old, weight 7^4-tbs., caught last November in Long Pond, Plymouth, Mass. Above, female 
chinook caught in Lake Sunapee by W. M. Keil, trolling 
postnuptial history of this great food fish is 
the most pathetic in all the happenings of 
nature. Exhausted by procreation and the 
long residence in fresh water, scarred by 
bruises, shorn of their fair proportions, 
sightless, deformed, without instinct to re¬ 
turn to the sea, the spent and leprous fish- 
forms give themselves to the current, heart¬ 
broken and helpless, to drift to an ignomin¬ 
ious death, and pile the river banks with 
festering carcasses, ghastly cemeteries that 
pollute the water and taint the air—an end 
Sunapee, where, after an ephemeral exist¬ 
ence of dwarfed growth and sexual impo¬ 
tence, the Chinooks group together during 
the autumnal anniversary of the funeral 
rites of their forbears, and await their 
deaths at the hands of the saprolegnia 
fungus. 
This tallies with the experience of Mr. 
W. M. Keil, Superintendent of the Tuxedo 
Fisheries, who becoming enthusiastic over 
the acclimatization of our splendid fish to 
a fresh water environment, visited various 
mer of 1917. The silver salmon that were 
planted in Averill Lake, Vermont, in 1912, 
and had grown to a weight of 2J4 lbs. had 
all disappeared in 1916. Mr. Keil has just 
written me as follows: 
“My experience with these fish in our 
local waters, and my personal observa¬ 
tions in regard to other waters that have 
been stocked with the Pacific salmon, 
has fully' convinced me (although I very 
much dislike to have to own up to it) 
(continued on page 442) 
