XXIV REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The California salmon, believed to be the same as the quinnat salmon 

 of the Columbia River (Salmo quiimat, Rich,) is one of the largest of this 

 family. Its average weight in the Sacramento River is 20 pounds, while 

 in overgrown individuals it is as high as 100 pounds. Its flavor when 

 fresh and properly cooked is scarcely inferior to that of the Atlantic 

 coast salmon {Salmo salar,) and in the markets of California and as 

 far eastward as New York it is sought as a luxury, and commands 

 a high price. Prepared in cans it finds a wide market throughout the 

 United States and in Australia.* It is by far the most prolific fish on 

 the Pacific coast. Of an anadromous habit, it swarms up the Colum- 

 bia, the Sacramento, and San Joaquin Rivers in vast shoals from March 

 to August, and thus becomes valuable not merely as an occasional article 

 of table luxury, but as a large commercial resource. Statistics pub- 

 lished in the weekly Astorian, Astoria, Oreg., for the season of 1875 on 

 the Columbia River, give 13,000,000 pounds as the»aggregate put up at 

 the different canning establishments, which sold at the average whole- 

 sale rate of eleven cents per pound, making a total money value of 

 $1,430,000. Besides the sale of the fish as food the manufacture of oil 

 from the heads has been begun, and this season a single fishing locality 

 produced 9,000 gallons. 



Statistics procured from the books of the Central Pacific Railroad 

 Company show that 4,079,025 pounds of salmon were shipped from 

 points on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers between November 1, 

 1874, and August 1, 1875. (See report of California commissioners, 



P- HO 



The species has proven itself thus far to be the best adapted of the 



family to the methods of artificial propagation. When properly packed 

 and kept at a sufficiently low temperature the eggs endure transporta- 

 tion with inconsiderable loss. Once in the hatching-troughs the loss is 

 very small before hatching, while the young are. possessed of great 

 tenacity of life, and grow to be several months old with less loss than 

 hns been experienced with any other species; indeed, they are com- 

 mended by all the fish -culturists who have had to do with them for 

 their hardiness, activity, and good-feeding tendencies. In the mature 

 stage they are capable of adapting themselves to a variety of conditions. 

 They pass up the Sacramento when its waters are turbid from the great 

 quantities of sediment washed into them by the rains and the extensive 



* Au item published in several of the newspapers of the United States hns a tendency 

 to excite prejudice against canned salmon as food. It appeared under the heading 

 "Poisoned by eating canned salmon," and stated that part of a can had been partaken 

 of by several persons who experienced no unpleasant results, but that after two days 

 the remainder of the contents of the can which had been set aside and exposed to the 

 air, being again eaten of by the same persons, purging and strong symptoms of poison- 

 ing resulted. The fact that such large quantities of the article are consumed through- 

 out the country with but a single instance of any ill effects suggests the possibility of 

 something else than the salmon as a cause for the sickness — the accidental mixture, 

 perhaps, of some deleterious article with the salmon before it was served. 



