96 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONEE OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



rivers. At this late period they are much emaciated, owing to their 

 exhaustion from breeding' and from months of abstinence, they being 

 said not to eat after entering fresh water; and their flesh, when cooked, 

 is rank and ill-flavored. During the month of April they suddenly dis- 

 appear, probably returning by the spring floods to salt water, although 

 the Indians say that but few return to the sea. The flesh of this fish, 

 when fresh from salt water, the individual being fat and in good con- 

 dition, is of a very pale yellowish "salmon" color. This color soon 

 changes to a pinkish-yellow, and, when the fish is worn out, to yellow- 

 ish-white. 



The males of this species have the hooked snout while still in salt 

 water and in good condition. In this difference of the jaws in the sexes 

 they agree with the 8. haniatus of Lapland, which, according to the 

 author of the "Lachesis Lapponica," has the hooking of the lower jaw 

 confined to the male sex. (See quotation in Rich. F. B. A.) 



The female slcowitz when fresh run has symmetrical jaws. The snout 

 becomes slightly decurved when they are much emaciated, and is sim- 

 ply owing to the absorption of the fatty cushions along the intermaxil- 

 laries, and therefore more apparent than real. 



The skowitz runs in immense shoals up the rivers emptying into Puget 

 Sound. Fisheries have been established in certain localities, and as 

 many as 3,000 fish taken in one haul of the seine. 



Since writing the report for the Pacific Railroad survey, so frequently 

 alluded to in this monograph, I have been further convinced that Dr. 

 Gairduer, whose notes are quoted hy Sir John Richardson, confounded 

 the Salmo irroteus and the present species, and recorded notes, part of 

 which apply to one and part to the other. The flesh of this fish, although 

 inferior to ^S*. quinnat, S. gairdiierl, and S. tnincatus, is far better than of 

 the other autumnal kinds. Being of a convenient size, they are rather 

 preferred for packing in salt. 



After entering the Columbia the slcowitz ascends the current of the 

 main river and its tributaries to points fully seven hundred miles by 

 water from the sea. 



The Indians say that many individuals return to the sea. According 

 to the natives at Fraser River, the present fish after entering salt water 

 changes color in a very uniform manner, the males turning red, the 

 females black. It, as well as S. canis, enters Chiloweyuck Lake. 



On the 4th of October, 1859, George Gibbs, esq., obtained from the 

 Okanagon River, Washington Territory, a female of this species, (No. 

 2007 Smith. Collect.,) which he says is the kind known to the Indians 

 of that region as the l:a-sJioo, (ke-as-soo, or ka-lca-soo, McDonald.) (See 

 chap, on Salinonid?e, Cooper & Suckley, j^at. Hist. Washington Terri- 

 tory.) According to Mr. Gibbs, the length of his specimen was 27 

 inches; head, 5.75 ; lateral line, 18; distance from snout to ventrals, 

 13.50; to dorsal, lO.GO; to adipose, 18.75; to anal, 17.75; meat, red; 

 eggs, orange; size of beaver, short. It had just arrived in the river. 



