Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1895-10-28

WHERE SALMON ABoUNn
slow but lneXorable march OF those de-
stroying agencies of human progress,
before which the salmon must surely
disappear, as did the buffalo of the
plains and the Indian of California.
1.-The helpless salmon's life is gripped
between these two forces, the murder
Gus greed of the fishermen and the
white mans advancing civilization, and
what hope is there for the salmon in
the end? Protective laws and artificial
breeding 6re able to hold the first in
check, but nothing can stop the last"
This statement is supplemented by
the inquiry: "What was it that de-
stroyed the salmon of the Hudson, the
Connecticut, the Merrimac, and the
various smaller rivers of New England,
where they used to be exceedingly
abandant?" 1t was not over6shing
that did it. If the excessive fishing had
been all there was to contend with, a
few simple laws would have been suf
ficient to preserve some remnants at
least of the race.
1t was not the fishing, it was the
growth of the country, as it is COM
monty called, the increase of the popu-
lation, necessarily bringing with it the
development of the various industries
by which communities live and become
prosperous. 1t was the mills, the dams,
the steamboats,, the manufactures in
furious to the water, and similar causes
which, first making the streams more
and more uninhabitable for the salmon,
finally exterminated them altogether.
In short, it was the growth vi the coun-
try and not the fishing which really set
bound to the habitations of the salm-
on on the Atlantic coast.
Then, concerning the salmon rivers
of the Pacific coast, the Sacramento,
for example, it is said that when the
first rush of gold-seekers came to Cali
fornia in 1s49, every tributary of the
Sacramento was fruitful spawning
ground for salmon, and into every trib-
utary countless shoals of salmon has
tened every summer to deposit their
eggs. But in 1872, only twenty-three
years later not one single tributary OF
the Sacramento of any account was a
spawning ground for the salmon except
the McCloud and Pitt rivers in the ex-
treme northern part of the state, where
the hostility of the Indians had kept
white men out" 1t was not fishing by
any means that had caused the disap-
pearance of the salmon, for the miners
did very little fishing in those times; but
1t was the debris from the quartz mines
which drove the salmon out, running the
spawning grounds and rendering the
river uninhabitable for the salmon.
DIR. Livingstone Stone, an eminent
scientist interested in the preservation
of the salmon fisheries, says: "Who
would have thought thirty years ago
that the creation of national park in
this country would be the means of
rescuing the buffalo from extinction?
Who thought then that anything was
needed to rescue the buffalo? The
buffalo roamed in myriads over the
plains and mountain slopes of the
central portions of the United States
and were so innumerable that, with the
exception of few far-sighted persons,
no one thought that this noble race of
animals was ever in danger. The sup
ply seemed inexhaustible and the
species at least safe from extinction.
"How soon we found out our mistake
and how suddenly the change came.
The note of alarm had hardly been
sounded long enough to be distinctly
comprehended over the country before
the buffaloes were gone-an gone prac-
tically, except few struggling sNviv-
ors which, if they had not found refuge
in Yellowstone park, would have been
gone too, long before this. The Vel
lowstone National park saved them. 1t
saved the wild race from extinction,
and, If nothing else should ever be ac-
complished by the creation of the park,
this alone would justify it's existence"
All the rivers within the jurisdiction
OF the United States have been investi-
gated by the fish commission, and none
of them are free from objections which
make salmon propagation impossible.
Where to locate salmon park has
been "a problem which has vexed the
commission for number of wears. A
place has been at last discovered for
salmon hatchery; river which can DC
made an asylum of refuge, and the hsf
commission believes that 1t should be
set aside aS an eternal heritage for the