must have been small by-streams of 
step-like cascades, for the salmon would 
have disappeared from this river long 
ago if they had been unable to get be- 
yond the falls. 
T is one of those great mysterious 
contortions of nature which decrees 
that a monstrous fish, built like a bat- 
tleship, shall abandon his home in the 
sea and traverse hundreds of miles of 
treacherous inland water. Hatched in 
rl 
the far upper reaches of a stream, the 
salmon drifts down to the ocean while 
still a small fish. Reaching maturity 
after several years of ocean life, he re- 
turns to the identical stream of his birth, 
there to continue the propagation of his 
own kind. Strange it is that salmon 
do not even spawn in large rivers, but 
follow on up to the real headwaters; 
they are often found in places scarcely 
deep enough to float their huge bodies. 
This up-stream journey is a task for 
which the battling salmon are eminently 
fitted. It is little short of amazing to 
see the powerful leaps they make in 
getting over a series of cascades. Their 
great forms go sailing into the air with 
the easy grace of an arrow in its flight; 
oe 
landing in a foaming torrent, they con- 
tinue to nose their way upward against 
such a force of water as would threaten 
the endurance of any man. These are 
the battles which are the life heritage 
of the salmon. He thrives on them, 
and multiplies. But with all mankind 
against him he perishes miserably; and 
it is only in recent years that human- 
ity has been concerned at all about his 
continued existence. 
The Willamette Falls region is the 
salmon’s sternest battleground in Ore- 
gon. Here is a place where great odds 
are stacked against the kingly hordes 
to impede their upward passage. For- 
tunately, man is now fighting on both 
sides. Attracted by the wide mouth of 
the Willamette, they have proceeded to 
this point in unusually large numbers. 
HE falls compels a halt, and in the 
waters below there is such a con- 
gestion of finny bodies as to create both 
a menace and a temptation. Is it going 
to be possible for them to get over? . 
Flourishing mills grouped about the 
falls have closed every avenue except 
the seething center channel. In normal 
times their wheels stand ready to use 
every drop of the river’s flow. During 
half of the year even the center chan- 
‘nel stands stark and naked, dry as a 

ee 
ge 
Willamette Falls, Oregon, the center of angling interest in the Springtime 
bone. Not much chance for a salmon 
there. 
UT the State of Oregon maintains 
continually a sensible fishway of 
easy grade and moderate waterflow. It 
does the soul good to see so many great 
fish at a time hopping up those watery 
steps and pushing their way upward 


to find peace in the more gentle waters 
beyond. That the fishway is practi- 
cal and in actual use is evidenced by 
the photograph (see frontispiece), as 
well as by the actual count of the offi- 
cers in charge. During the 1924 sal- 
mon season there were several days 
when the fish went over at a rate vary- 
ing from five hundred to twelve hun- 
dred per hour. Unusual conditions 
caused this congestion, but it demon- 
strates the efficiency of the fishway just 
the same. 
However, the implements of human 
greed constitute the salmon’s greatest 
menace. A single net dragged along 
the lower channel for a short distance 
(Continued on page 118) 
fi) 
