Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-04-19
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The long held and only recently re-
jected theory, that the shoals Of fishes
moved In a vast mass along the coast,
sending of detachments into each
river as they passed its MOUTH is to be
attributed TO John Gilpin and some
other authors, who have written Aow-
lngly on the subject. Recent careful
Investigations OF naturalists indicate
that the anadromous fishes, those en-,
tering the rivers and bodies Of fresh
water from the sea, do not have an
extended range in the ocean and that
each rivers colony remains, after re.
turning in the deep water 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 lite OF fishes
has always been a mystery. 1t is not
a search Ior 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 disposition
OF the question as to how each colony
recognizes its native river, to say
that 1t is instructive; 80 it is also
when the butchers horse recoR
nizes the familiar gates;
bat we have some evidence as to what
sense he uses. The fishes, probably
prompted by functional disturbances,
from the tumid ovsries and spermaries,
are melted to movement. The courses
OF the sea, unmarked as they are,
are within each cOlony's limit, their
habitual pathways An unerring ca
pacity in the fish for finding its own
river, may be more than that which
guides the hermit crab to the shell OF
the natica. The latter goes to hide
its sensitive body, with an apparent
nervous trepidation at its unprotected
condition. The former, with an unea-
siness Of body from functional changes
it is undergoing, is impelled to aetivi-
ty. The transmitted habit Of ascend.
ing the stream, is, as it were, blended
and alleged with the substance Of its
nerves, and reused by its condition,
carries it, without conscious purpose,
into the river Of its progenitors and
its own. The impulses of the fish
are only in slightly more complicated
series than those of the crab. That it
should be instinct for a specific
stream, established through inheri.
lance Of many generations, is easier
to understand than that il is sort of
memory of the place of its immature
life, as the theory of fish culture
makes it, and as observations seem to
sustain. La the waters of the Della
ware where there were NO salmon or
iginally, the young salmon placed in
Bushkill creek returned after five
years, and were taken, not only in the
Delaware river, but the larger number
nsar the Bushkill creek, 1t is not
essential that all the fishes should
have this impelliDg influence, what
ever it may be, as like gregarious
mammala and birds they flock to-
gether, following the leadership of
whichever for the time takes it. Tie
idea is suggested that the senses may
be the guiding agent, that fish goes
nosing along the coast,
or tasting the streams, until it recog
nizes its own. The o1nyexity of
the corner must afford the fishes a
very limited range OF vision. The
supposed dullness Of the sense of
smell end of taste in fishes might alone
dispose Of the suggestion that these
are employed. The following OCCUR
renee, however, would seem to decide
to the contrary. The Russian river
emptying into the Pacific, north of
San Francisco, had its mouth entirely
closed by the waves during storm.
The colony of salmon made their
yearly migration from the deep waters
toward the mouth of the river, and
many raced through the surf and
landed high and dry on the sand that
walled them out Of their native river.
The migration Of the salmon into
some Of the Pacific rivers is a irenzied
advance over shoals, rapids and cas-
cade far into thin streams and brooks,
where they arrive battered and weary.
TO accomplish their reproductive
labOrs, aud drop back, the sport OF
the current, dead and dying, toward
the sea.