SALMON. 57 



as Puget's Sound) was frequented at the time by 

 such myriads of the salmon, that a stone could 

 not have reached the bottom without touching 

 several individuals their abundance surpassing 

 imagination to conceive.' He goes on to say, 

 that in a little brook they killed sixty with their 

 boarding-pikes. Then, he says, the hump before 

 the dorsal fin consists of fat, and appears to 

 be peculiar to the males, who acquire it after 

 spawning-time, when their snouts become elon- 

 gated and arched. 



The Fall-salmon (Salmo lycaodon) differ most 

 extraordinarily at different periods of their 

 growth so much so, that I quite believed the 



adult, middle-aged, and voun^ were three dis- 



* ~ 



tinct and well-marked species; but Dr. A. Giin- 

 ther has very kindly investigated the matter, 

 and knocked my three species into one. 



Indians take the young of this salmon in large 

 numbers in the bays, harbours, and fiord-like 

 inlets surrounding the island, and along the 

 British Columbian and Oregon coasts ; also in the 

 Sumass, Chilukwevuk, and Sweltza rivers, and in- 



v 



deed in all inland lakes that are accessible to fish 

 from the sea. These handsome, troutlike young 

 salmon are easily caught with bait of any kind ; 

 they rise readily to a gaudy fly, and seize even 



