Trans. N. Y. Ac. Set. 6 Oct. 17, 



perhaps the most striking being Bryanthus, which has a fine fir-like 

 foliage and clusters of beautiful purple flowers. It belongs to the 

 Heath family, and closely resembles the heather of Scotland. 



The streams of this region are clear, cold, and rapid, and abound in 

 fish, chiefly of the salmon family, and these have given the name to 

 Salmon River, the principal water course. 



Two species of salmon were running up the Salmon River, one the 

 large Ouuinat or Chinook salmon, comparatively rare, and the other 

 the "red fish " {Oncorhynchus nerka). This is a small salmon, 15 to 

 18 inches in length, and weighing 3 to 5 pounds. As seen in their mi- 

 gration their bodies are brick red to purple in color, the heads dark or 

 light green ; they were then going up to their spawning ground. Red- 

 fish Lake, one of a half-dozen of small lakes on the headwaters of the 

 Columbia, which are the special breeding-places of this interesting 

 fish. Commg all the way from their abode in the ocean, led by an in- 

 fallible but inscrutable instinct, they push on night and day till they 

 reach their remote birthplaces in these little lakes far up in the moun- 

 tains and 1000 miles from their starting point. Here they accomplish 

 apparently the great object of their lives, the reproduction of the 

 species, by depositing the spawn in the shallows of the rivulets which 

 fall into the lake. 



The always attractive coloring of the fish during this nuptial season 

 becomes greatly heightened ; the body assumes a brilliant, almost lu- 

 minous red, as bright as that of the gold fish, and where numbers are 

 dashing through the water, literally in a blaze ol excitement, they pro- 

 duce an exhibition that is strikingly novel and interesting. 



When the spawning season is over they probably do not return, as 

 none are seen descending the rivers. The young fish start on their 

 migration to the ocean while yet very small, and within the first year 

 of their lives, remaining away it is supposed some three or four years, 

 during which they acquire their full growth when they return to die 

 where they were born. 



An active industry has grown up in the capture of the red fish in 

 their annual migrations, but it is pushed with so much energy and un- 

 sparing cupidity that their numbers are rapidly diminishing and the 

 species will apparently be soon extirpated in these waters unless pro- 

 tected by legal enactment. 



A branch of the Union Pacific Railroad is being constructed from 

 Granger, Wyoming, to the mouth of the Columbia. On this a large 

 amount of traffic is expected, as it will link together many settlements 

 having a considerable resident population and traverse in different por- 

 tions of the route rich agricultural and mining districts. 



Dr. Newberry then briefly described a small but remarkably rich 



