1 66 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Quinnat Salmon. 



1. The Quinnat salmon (Oncorhynchus tscJiawytscha Walbaum). 

 This species is called king salmon in Alaska, Chinook salmon on 

 the Columbia, spring salmon on Fraser River, Tyee salmon where the 

 Chinook jargon is spoken and Tchaviche among the Russians. This 

 is the salmon of the Columbia and Sacramento, the only species having 

 value south of Puget Sound. It reaches a larger size than any of 

 the others, the average at four years being 22 pounds and occasionally 

 running to 60, 80 or even 100 pounds. In quality of flesh it is also 

 superior to any of the others, at its best no wise inferior to the Atlantic 

 salmon. Its flesh is red, rich and tender, becoming however progress- 

 ively paler in color and less rich in flavor, as the spawning season 

 approaches, although the flesh of spawning fish is sometimes dull 

 red. The Quinnat is readily known by its large size and the 

 presence of round black spots on back and tail. As the breeding 

 season approaches it becomes blackish, the sides blotched with 

 dull red. 



The Quinnat runs in the large rivers, especially those having glacial 

 or snow-fed tributaries. Its chief run is in May in the north, in 

 June and sometimes in early July in the Columbia and even later in 

 the Sacramento. In the Columbia, there is a more or less distinct 

 full run in September. In Alaska, the principal run is in May. 



The Quinnat salmon runs to the very headwaters of the streams it 

 inhabits. In the Columbia, it goes to the Sawtooth Mountains of 

 Idaho, as well as to the headwaters of the Clackamas, Cowlitz, Des 

 Chutes and other streams furnishing suitable spawning beds. In the 

 Yukon some individuals each year ascend to Caribou Crossing on 

 Lake Bennett, a distance of 2,250 miles from the sea. In Alaska 

 the king salmon runs in appreciable numbers in the following rivers: 

 Stikine, Taku, Unuk, Chilkat, Alsek, Kussilof, Copper, Knik, Shu- 

 shitna, Nushigak and Kvichak. Schools of king salmon are occasion- 

 ally seen among the islands of southeast Alaska, in pursuit of schools 

 of herring. It is not likely that the species goes far out to sea, or for 

 any great distance from the stream in which it was spawned. It is 

 commonly asserted that each salmon returns to the particular stream 

 in which it was spawned. There is no evidence that this is true. A 

 discussion of this point will be found in a previous article in this 

 journal. 



The Red Salmon. 



The red salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka Walbaum). This fish is 

 known throughout Alaska as red salmon. In the Columbia, it is 

 called blue-back salmon, while in Fraser River it is known as Sockeye, 

 a Chinook word, originally spelled Sukkegh, then Sawkwi. To the 



