Page:The Pacific Monthly volumes 1-3.djvu/89

 the first effort ever made in the Northwest to artificially propagate these fish, and was in every way successful. The eggs are smaller than those of the Chinook and average about 3,500 to the fish, and can be as successfully handled as those of the former, although it is more difficult to hold the spawning fish owing to freshets incident to the season in which they spawn, which are liable to carry away the racks and release the parent fish.

The steelhead is in its prime in the fall of the year, and deteriorates slowly until the spawning time (between Febru- ary and May). It differs materially from the Oncorhynchus, in that it survives the reproductive act and returns to the ocean, while the former perish after performing this function. They ascend as far up the headwaters and tributaries of the Colum- bia as it is possible for a fish to make its way.

For canning purposes, when in their prime they are only inferior to the Chi- nook and blueback. For shipping they are preferred to the Chinook. The won- derful increase in the fresh-fish trade in- dustry during the past six years, result- ing in an increased demand for steel- heads, has had the effect of raising the value of these fish, until at certain sexsons of the year the fishermen receive a higher price for them than for the Chinook.

This brief and hastily written descrip- tion of the Columbia river salmon would be incomplete and unsatisfactory should I close without referring to the great indus- try that has grown and prospered upon it for more than a third of a century, and the methods of reaping the great harvest that annually bless that mighty river.

The apparatus employed consists of gill- nets, pound nets, fish wheels, seines, set- nets and dipnets. Of these, gillnet fishing is by far the most important, 3,184 men being thus engaged in taking salmon, using 1,632 gillnets valued at $379,220, and 1,589 boats valued at $219,000. From 60 to 65 per cent of the annual catch is taken by this method. One thousand and ten men are engaged in fishing with wheels, poundnets, seines, setnets, etc., the aggre- gate value of which amounts to $560,000, in all making an industrial army of 4,194 persons engaged in the salmon fishery of the Columbia river. In addition to these

there are 2,227 persons employed in the canneries and as shoresmen. The value of shore property, buildings, machinery and cold-storage plants amounts to $1,000,- 000. The cash capital employed amounts to $950,000, thus making a grand total of 6,421 persons employed, and $3,108,220 in- vested in this greatest and most important river fishery in the world. This harvest of the waters has produced a wealth ten times exceeding that of the famous Klon- dike, and has annually yielded up its treasures for more than a generation. It has been a marvelous mine of wealth with- out the rigors of an Arctic winter, con- tributing largely to the prosperity and welfare of our state.

The total ouput of the Columbia river salmon fishery since the enterprise was inaugurated as a commercial factor aggregates 850,000,000 pounds, worth $75,000,000. If all these salmon could be loaded on freight cars it would require 42,500 cars to hold them, making a solid train of over 280 miles long. No other river or like area of water anywhere on earth has ever yielded such vast wealth in the same period of time. If the com- prehensive law recently enacted by the Oregon legislature is also passed by the Washington law-makers, and then strictly enforced, this great industry will con- tinue to yield its treasures to the Pacific Northwest. At present the output ap- proximates $3,000,000 per annum, one-half of which goes into the hands of the in- dustrial army that gathers and prepares the product for the markets of the world.

For a number of years there has been a gradual diminution in the abundance of salmon in the Columbia river, but during the past season the falling off was so pro- nounced as to alarm many who have here- tofore been indifferent. They at last seem to realize that we cannot continue to reap bountiful harvests indefinitely without sowing.

The future prosperity, and, in my opin- ion, the preservation of this great indus- try depends upon artificial propagation and a strict enforcement of the laws, which I believe has been made possible under the act drafted by the Astoria Progressive Commercial Association, and which was enacted into a law at the re- cent session of the Oregon legislature.