SALMON AND SALMON STREAMS OF ALASKA. 167 



Russians it is Krasnaya Eyba, which means red-fish. This species is 

 the neatest and most symmetrical of the salmon. Its usual weight at 

 four years is about seven pounds, varying from six to ten pounds. 

 The flesh is deep-red, firmer, drier and less palatable than that 

 of the Quinnat. The flesh is more compact than that of any other 

 salmon, hence in canning it is boiled longer. In the sea the red 

 salmon is clear sky-blue above, silvery below, without spots. After 

 entering the river, for the purpose of spawning, the color soon changes 

 [0 crimson, at first bright, but soon blotched with darker and blood- 

 red, the head becoming bright olive green in sharp contrast with 

 the red. The jaws in the male become extravagantly produced and 

 hooked. 



This species runs chiefly in Jul}'-, and often goes for a very long 

 distance. In the Yukon, it ascends to 'Forty Mile,' a distance of over 

 1,800 miles from the sea. In the Columbia, it ranges as far as the 

 lakes of the Sawtooth range in Idaho. It always spawns in small 

 streams which run into the head of a lake. It never runs in any stream 

 which does not have as a tributary a lake with available spawning 

 grounds in the streams at its head. The red salmon often enters small 

 streams, even those a few feet across, and sometimes in great numbers. 

 The determining factor is always the presence of a suitable lake with 

 spawning beds above it. The lake may be a few rods from the sea as at 

 Boca de Quadra, or it may be many hundreds of miles as in the case 

 of the Columbia, but the lake is always present in every stream in 

 which red salmon run. 



In certain large lakes at a distance from the sea, in Idaho, there 

 is a dwarf form of the red salmon, exactly similar to the sea form, but 

 rarely exceeding half a pound in weight. These are probably land- 

 locked in these lakes as both sexes are freely represented among them. 

 At the sea, the dwarf fish running are almost all males. In the spawn- 

 ijQg season of tne Quinnat salmon, many young males but one or two 

 years of age enter the river with the larger fish, spawning pre- 

 cociously, and all dying. Perhaps these dwarf red salmon are simply 

 precocious individuals spawning and dying before their time. No 

 females were seen among these by us at Astoria. In streams of Cook 

 Inlet, there is a late run of very small red salmon, locally known as 

 'Arctic salmon.' These are doubtless young fish running prematurely. 

 They are not confined to Cook Inlet, but many were seen by us at 

 Karluk. Of a large number examined, all but two were found to be 

 males. The small red-fish running in Necker Bay on Baranof Island 

 are of the same nature. With them are some full grown red salmon. 

 Why this particular stream is attractive to precociously spawning fish 

 is a matter for investigation. 



