78 Salmonidae 



December, and takes place usually as soon as the temperature 

 of the water falls to 54. The manner of spawning is probably 

 similar for all the species. In the quinnat the fishes pair off; 

 the male, with tail and snout, excavates a broad, shallow "nest" 

 in the gravelly bed of the stream, in rapid water, at a depth 

 of one to four feet and the female deposits her eggs in it. 

 They then float down the stream tail foremost, the only 

 fashion in which salmon descend to the sea. As already 

 stated, in the head-waters of the large streams, unquestionably, 

 all die; it is the belief of the writer that none ever survive. 

 The young hatch in sixty days, and most of them return to 

 the ocean during the high water of the spring. They enter the 

 river as adults at the age of about four years. 



The salmon of all kinds in the spring are silvery, spotted 

 or not according to the species, and with the mouth about equally 

 symmetrical in both sexes. As the spawning season approaches 

 the female loses her silvery color, becomes more slimy, the 

 scales on the back partly sink into the skin, and the flesh changes 

 from salmon-red and becomes variously paler, from the loss of 

 oil; the degree of paleness varying much with individuals and 

 with inhabitants of different rivers. In the Sacramento the 

 flesh of the quinnat, in either spring or fall, is rarely pale. In 

 the Columbia a few with pale flesh are sometimes taken in 

 spring, and an increasing number from July on. In Frazer 

 River the fall run of the quinnat is nearly worthless for canning 

 purposes, because so many are "white-meated." In the spring 

 very few are " white-meated " ; but the number increases towards 

 fall, when there is every variation, some having red streaks 

 running through them, others being red toward the head and 

 pale toward the tail. The red and pale ones cannot be dis- 

 tinguished externally, and the color is dependent on neither 

 age nor sex. There is said to be no difference in the taste, but 

 there is little market for canned salmon not of the conventional 

 orange-color. 



As the season advances the difference between the males 

 and females becomes more and more marked, and keeps pace 

 with the development of the milt, as is shown by dissection. 

 The males have (i) the premaxillaries and the tip of the lower 

 jaw more and more prolonged, both of the jaws becoming finally 



