The Silent Battle of the Salmon Spawning Grounds

I have caught salmon from the Columbia River bar to the headwaters of the river, and have studied their habits and manner of spawning. They always select a shoal above a heavy rapid. Nature seems to have endowed them with that instinct. The only reason I can give for this is that they can defend the spawn bed to a better advantage than at any other place. The spawn bed is formed by scooping out a hollow place in the bed of the river, similar in shape to a gold pan, the sides being made very smooth so as to admit the ova to roll to the center of the bed. The female then takes her position over the spawn bed to deposit her ova, which generally occupies from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, according to the interruptions which generally occur by the male, which often has to fight some intruder away. At times there will be three male salmon engaged in battle over one spawn bed, as there are always more males than females at the spawning grounds. It is one of the most interesting studies that can be pursued, but in fact I do not think there are fifty fishermen on the Columbia River that have ever made it a study, hence their ignorance in regard to the supply of salmon. Perhaps if they had, they would take some steps to have the three hundred machines that are now employed in destroying our salmon, in the shape of wheels, traps and seines, removed. The time is fast coming when they will have to take some action or quit fishing. There are not enough salmon allowed to reach the spawning ground to keep up the supply and of the few that reach there, nearly thirty per cent get killed or die, especially the females.