Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-05-21
How Fish Find theIr Own Rivers.


THE long held and only recently re-
jected theory, that the shoals of fishes
moved in a vast mass along the coast,
sending off detachments into each river
.as they passed its mouth, is to be attrib-
uted to John Gilpin and some other
authors, who have written flowingly on
the subject. The recent careful inves-
LEGATIONS of naturalists indicate that the
anadromous fishes, those entering the
rivers and bodies Of fresh water from
the sea, do not have an extended range
in the ocean, and that each rivers col
Ony remains, after returning, in the
deep waters opposite their river
The motive for the movement of these
shoals of anadromous fishes, or rather
how it is melted, has scarcely been
explained. The life of the fishes has
always been a mystery. II is not a
search for food, as they do not eat
while in fresh water; the opening of
hundreds of stomachs will fail to find
food present. 1t is an easy disposal of
the question as to how each colony
recognizes its native river 10 say that
"i is instructive" So it is, also, when
the butchers horse recognizes the
familiar gates but we have some evil
dence as TO what senses he uses. The
fishes, probably, prompted by function
al disturbance, from the tumid Ovaries
and spermaries, are melted to move
ment. The courses of the sea, un-
marked as they are, are, within each
colony's limit, their habitual pathways.
An unerring capacity in the fish for
finding its own river may be no more
than that which guides the hermit-crab
10 the shell of the Rdticd. The latter
goes TO hide its sensitive body, with AN
apparent nervous trepidation at its un-
protected condition. The former, with
an uneasiness Of body from the func-
tional changes it is undergoing, is
impelled to activity. The transmitted
habit of ascending the stream is, as it
were, blended and alloyed with the
substance Of the nerves, and aroused
by its condition, carries it, without con-
sciOus purpose, into the river of its
progenitors and its own. The inn
pulses Of the fish are only in a slightly
more complicated series than those
of the crab. That it should be the in
stinct for a specific stream, established
through inheritance of many genera
tions, is easier to understand than that
it is sort of memory of the place ol
its immature life, as the theory of fish.
culture makes it, and as observation
seems to sustain. In the waters of the
Delaware, where there were no salmon
originally, the young salmon placed in
Bushkill Creek returned after five years
and were taken, not only in the Della
ware River, but the larger number il
the neighborhood of Bushlill Creek.
is not essential that all the fishes shoulC
have this impelling influence, whatever
it may be, as like gregarious mammals
and birds they flock together, following
the leadership Of whichever for the timt
takes it. The idea is suggested that tht
senses may be the guiding agent, that &
fish goes nosing about the coast, or tast
ing the streams, until it recognizes it,
own. The conveXity of the cornea mus
afford the fishes a very limited range O
vision. The supposed dullness of thu
sense of smell and of taste in ishei
might alone dispose of the suggestion
that these are employed. The follow
ing occurrence, however, would seem L
decide to the contrary. The Russian
River, emptyiug into the Pacific, nOrtl
of San Francisco, had its mouth entirel,
closed by the waves during storm
The colony of salmon made their yearll
migration from the deep waters toward
the mouth of the river, and many 0
them raced through the surf, and LANDED
high and dry on the sand that WALLED
them out from their native river.
The migration of the salmon int,
some Of the Pacific rivers is a frenziet
advance over shoals, rapids, and cas-
cades, far into thin streams and brooks
where they arrive battered and weary
to accomplish their exhaustive produc
tive labors, and drop back, the sport o
the current, dead and dying toward tn
sea.-JaDics w. Milner, IN Harper'
Mayd:iHe t0r May.