82 Salmonidae 



various streams. (2) Return of marked .salmon. (3) Intro- 

 duction of salmon into new streams followed by their return. 



Under the first head it is often asserted of fishermen that 

 they can distinguish the salmon of different streams. Thus the 

 Lynn Canal red salmon are larger than those in most waters, 

 and it is claimed that those of Chilcoot Inlet are larger than those 

 of the sister stream at Chilcat. The red salmon of Red Fish Bay 

 on Baranof Island are said to be much smaller than usual, and 

 those of the neighboring Necker Bay are not more than one- 

 third the ordinary size. Those of a small rapid stream near 

 Nass River are more wiry than those of the neighboring large 

 stream. The same claim is made for the different streams of 

 Puget Sound, each one having its characteristic run. In all 

 this there is some truth and perhaps some exaggeration. I have 

 noticed that the Chilcoot fish seem deeper in body than those 

 at Chilcat. The red salmon becomes compressed before spawn- 

 ing, and the Chilcoot fishes having a short run spawn earlier 

 than the Chilcat fishes, which have many miles to go, the water 

 being perhaps warmer at the mouth of the river. Perhaps 

 some localities may meet the nervous reactions of small fishes, 

 while not attracting the large ones. Mr. H. S. Davis well 

 observes that "until a constant difference has been demon- 

 strated by a careful examination of large numbers of fish from 

 each stream taken at the same time, but little weight can be 

 attached to arguments of this nature." 



It is doubtless true as a general proposition that nearly 

 all salmon return to the region in which they were spawned. 

 Most of them apparently never go far away from the mouth of 

 the stream or the bay into which it flows. It is true that salmon 

 are occasionally taken well out at sea, and it is certain that the 

 red-salmon runs of Puget Sound come from outside the Straits 

 of Fuca. There is, however, evidence that they rarely go so 

 far as that. When seeking shore they do not reach the original 

 channels. 



In 1880 the writer, studying the salmon of the Columbia, 

 used the following words, which he has not had occasion to 

 change : 



"It is the prevailing impression that the salmon have some 

 special instinct which leads them to return to spawn in the 



