File:Alaska and the Klondike (1905) (14597744410).jpg

Identifier: alaskaklondike00mcla (find matches)
Title: Alaska and the Klondike
Original image title: South Alaska Indian in Kiak. The boat is an Aleut or or yupik-style baidarka; the occupant is paddling it backwards.
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: McLain, John Scudder, b. 1853
Subjects: Alaska Klondike River Valley (Yukon) -- Gold discoveries
Publisher: New York : McClure, Phillips & co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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is known that it is hatched in fresh water; that in thecourse of time it finds its way to the sea. But where itgoes, and what has been its manner of life during the fiveor six years which are generally supposed to intervenebefore it returns to spawn in soft water, no one has yetbeen able to discover. But at the age of probably six orseven years both males and females swarm about themouths of fresh-water streams, guided by an instinct whichcompels them to seek the sources of these fresh-waterstreams for their spawning grounds. As soon as thesalmon leaves the salt water and enters the fresh it beginsto deteriorate. The absence of the saline property seemsto be fatal to his existence. The flesh begins to rot; themales particularly turn a purplish-red, with great splotchesof grey on their backs and sides; their noses appear tobe covered with a white fungous growth, which is onlydecomposition setting in, and unless they reach their des-tination within a reasonable time they die before the
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w 2IO ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE spawning process. When they spawn the male digs alittle depression in the sand with his nose and the eggsare deposited in it. But where thousands of salmon arespawning on the same gravel bed the same season the eggsfirst deposited are often disturbed, and it is estimated thatnot one in ten ever matures under natural conditions. Thespawning salmon rarely if ever find their way back tosalt water, but die in the fresh water to which they havecome to lay their eggs. Wonderful stories are told of thefeats performed by the salmon in ascending rapids andcascades in order to reach the headwaters where theirinstincts impel them to go. Where the volume of fallingwater is sufficient they are said to swim almost perpen-dicularly for several feet, while a leap of two or threefeet over an obstruction is no trick at all for these powerfulswimmers. Although the law provides that salmon fishing mustbe suspended for thirty-six hours out of every week inorder to give the fi

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