The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-06-04
The Birthplace Of Salmon.

The Birthplace Of Salmon.
In the realm of the Northwest Wind,
on the boundary-line between the dark
fir-forests aud the sunny plains, there
stands a mountain, great white cone
two miles and half in perpendicular
height. On its lower mile, the dense
fir-woods cover it with never-changing
green; on its next half-mile, a lighter
green of grass and bushes give place in
winter to white; and, on its qppermost
mile, the SHOWS of the great Ice age
still linger in unspotted purity. The
people of Washington Territory say
that this mountain is the great " King
pin of the Universe" which shows that,
even in its own country, Mount Rainier
is not without honor.
Flowing down from the southwest
slope of Mount Rainier is cold, clear
river fed by the melting SHOWS of the
mountain. Madly it hastens down over
white cascades and beds of shining
sands, through birch-woods and belts of
dark frs to mingle its waters at last
with those of the great Columbia.
This river is the Cowlitz, and on its
bottom, not many years ago, there lay
half-buried in the sand number of lit
tie orange-colored globules, each about
much in themselves, but, like the philos-
opher's monads, each one had in it the
promise and potency of an active life.
In the water above them, little suckers
and chubs and prickly sculpins we're
straining their mouths to draw these
globules from the sand, and vicious
looking crawfshes picked them up with
their laundering hands and examined
them with their telescope eyes. But
one, at least, of the globules escaped
their scientific curiosity, else this story
would not be worth telling.
The sun shone down on it through
the clear water, and the ripples of the
Cowlitz said over it their incantations,
and in it at last awoke a living being.
1t was fish, a curious little fellow, only
half an inch long, with great, staring
eyes which made almost half his length,
and body so transparent that he could
not cast shadow. He was little sal
mon, very little salmon, but the water
was good, and there were flies, and
worms, and little living creatures in
abundance for him to eat, and he soon
became larger salmon. And there
were many more little salmon with him,
some larger and some smaller, and they
all had a merry time. Those who had
been born soonest and had grown larg-
est used to chase the others around and
bite off their tails, or, still better, take
them by the heads and swallow them
whole, for, said they, "Even young sal
mon are good eating" "Heads / win,
tails you lose," was their motto. Thus,
what was once two small salmon be-
came united into one larger one, and the
process of "addition, division and ST.
lence," still went on.
By-and-by, when all the salmon were
too small to swallow the others and too
large to be swallowed, they began to
grow restless and to sigh for change.
They saw that the water rushing by
seemed to be in great hurry to get
somewhere, and one of them suggested
that its hurry was caused by something
good to eat at the other end of its course.
Then they all started down the stream,
salmon-fashion, which fashion is to get
into the current, head upstream, and
so to drift backward as the river sweeps
along.
Down the Cowlitz River they went for
day and night, finding much to in
terest them which we need not know.
At last, they began to grow hungry, and,
coming near the shore, they saw an anple.
worm of rare size and beauty floating in
an eddy of the stream. Quick as
thought one of the boys opened his
mouth, which was we'll filled with teeth
of different sizes, and put it around that
angle-worm. Quicker still he felt a
sharp pain in his gills, followed by 4
smothering sensation, and in an instant
his comrades saw him rise straight into
the air. This was nothing new to them
for they often leaped out of the water ii
their games of hide-and-seek, but only
to come down again with loud splasf
not far from where they went out. But
this one never came back, and the other.
went on their course wondering - Prof
David s. Jordan, IN Popular Scie,,c,
Monthly.