Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/188

 ration, however, they are kept in captivity until about six months old, when they are turned loose in some stream and rind their way to the ocean with an estimated loss of but ten per cent of their number.

Characteristics of the Royal Chinook. Long-continued and careful study of the salmon has established most of its habits and characteristics beyond question, though where the salmon travel after reaching the ocean, and how they live during their four year's absence, still remains a mooted question. It is generally agreed that many return at the spawning time to their native streams, though this is questioned by some naturalists. Tests made by marking the hatchery fry have proved that many return to their parent stream. Before artificial hatching was established by both the state and national authorities, the Chinook salmon was on the rapid road to extinction. But under this method, millions are turned loose in the streams every year and an industry has been preserved, which, in commercial value, is surpassed by but two or three others in the State of Oregon. The possibilities of the business may be better appreciated when it is understood that one female salmon has been known to yield 5000 eggs at spawning time and that the average production is about 3,5uO.

Salem Becomes the Permanent Capital. "By the Constitution of the State of Oregon, requiring that at the first regular session of the legislature after its adoption a law should be enacted submitting the question of the location of the seat of state capitol government to the vote of the people, the assembly of 1860 passed an act calling for this vote at the election 'of