484 AMERICAN FISHES. 



species is very uniform in its size, and averages ten to twelve pounds. It 

 is seldom or never seen in the rivers in spring. 



^.^-^^''^ 





THE CHOCICHA OR QCINN'AT SALN50X. 



The Quinnat Salmon, Oncorhynchns chouicha, ascends the large rivers 

 of California and occurs northward to the Yukon in Alaska. 



This is the largest and most important species of the genus, it is said to 

 reach one hundred pounds in weight. It is easily caught with hook and 

 line in the fresh-waters, where it goes to deposit its eggs. It does not 

 readily take a fly, but becomes an easy victim when tempted with salmon 

 roe, which is the most effective of all baits for catching this fish. When 

 prime it very much resembles in appearance the well known Atlantic 

 Salmon [Salmo salar) in the same condition, with this exception, that it 

 has on its back and sides nearly black, star-like spots, while the Alantic 

 Salmon, when fresh froin the ocean has none. 



The California Salmon is a remarkable fish, and has an extraordinary 

 career. Fifty years ago it was hardly known, except to students of natural 

 history. Now it is known and eaten almost all over the world, for there 

 is hardly a i)ort in the world where ships ha\e not carried the canned 

 Salmon of the Columbia, which is the same fish under a different name; 

 and not only has this fish, in the form of food, tra\eled nearly all over the 

 world, but the living embryos of the California Salmon have been trans- 

 ported to England, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Russia, Austra- 

 lia, and New Zealand, so that there is ])robably no one fish inhabiting a 

 limited locality which is known t)ver the world in so many different places 

 as the California Salmon. An admirable biography of this species by Mr. 

 Livingston Stone, may be found in the Quarto Fishery Report. 



