Salmonidas 75 



beginning in late June in Chilcoot River, where some were 

 found actually spawning July 1 5 ; beginning after the middle 

 of July in Frazer River. 



As the season advances, smaller and younger salmon of these 

 species (quinnat and blue-back) enter the rivers to spawn, and 

 in the fall these young specimens are very numerous. We have 

 thus far failed to notice any gradations in size or appearance 

 of these young fish by which their ages could be ascertained. 

 It is, however, probable that some of both sexes reproduce at 

 the age of one year. In Frazer River, in the fall, quinnat male 

 grilse of every size, from eight inches upwards, were running, 

 the milt fully developed, but usually not showing the hooked 

 jaws and dark colors of the older males. Females less than 

 eighteen inches in length were not seen. All of either sex, large 

 and small, then in the river had the ovaries or milt developed. 

 Little blue-backs of every size, down to six inches, are also 

 found in the upper Columbia in the fall, with their organs of 

 generation fully developed. Nineteen -twentieths of these young 

 fish are males, and some of them have the hooked jaws and red 

 color of the old males. Apparently all these young fishes, like 

 the old ones, die after spawning. 



The average weight of the adult quinnat in the Columbia, 

 in the spring, is twenty-two pounds; in the Sacramento, about 

 sixteen. Individuals weighing from forty to sixty pounds are 

 frequently found in both rivers, and some as high as eighty or 

 even one hundred pounds are recorded, especially in Alaska, 

 where the species tends to run larger. It is questionable whether 

 these large fishes are those which, of the same age, have grown 

 more rapidly; those which are older, but have for some reason 

 failed to spawn; or those which have survived one or more 

 spawing seasons. All these origins may be possible in individual 

 cases. There is, however, no positive evidence that any salmon 

 of the Pacific survives the spawning season. 



Those fish which enter the rivers in the spring continue their 

 ascent till death or the spawning season overtakes them. Doubt- 

 less not one of them ever returns to the ocean, and a large pro- 

 portion fail to spawn. They are known to ascend the Sacra- 

 mento to its extreme head-waters, about four hundred miles. 

 In the Columbia they ascend as far as the Bitter Root and Saw- 



