Sauntering in back issues of The American Biology Teacher, I paused at an interesting story (page 402, September, 1965), worth republishing as a reminder of the unyielding nature of the base impulses:
Workers at Humboldt County’s Prairie Creek fish hatchery in Eureka, California had a finny visitor recently and are not telling a fish story that tops all fish stories. The visitor, named “Indomitable,” is a two-year old, 14-inch silver salmon that overcame all obstacles and returned to the tank in which it was spawned. To do so, the fish had to swim some five miles from the Pacific ocean up Redwood Creek, into Prairie Creek, up a drainage ditch, through several other drains, straight up a four-inch drain pipe that had a 90-degree sharp turn in it, then knock off a wire screen cover over a 2 ½ inch stand pipe before finally clearing a nearly impassable wire net into the tank. “Indomitable” was none the worse for his journey except for a slightly bashed-in nose, apparently received when he knocked off the wire screen cover. Hatchery manager Kenneth Johnson terms the trip “the most amazing spawning journey known to the world fish history.”
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