116 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



vertex along tlie median line^and not from snout to farthest point on 

 edge of operculum. It was this measaremeut of the head which was 

 one-thirteenth of the fish's total length. 



The following is extracted from the report on the Salmonidse in the 

 Pacific Railroad Report, vol, xii : 



While residing at Puget Sound I collected the following information 

 from the Indians respecting the salmon known to the Nisquallies as the 

 skwotcl, which I consider identical with the Jclutchin of the Klallams, 

 a specimen of which has served as the typical example of the present 

 species. This fine salmon is second to none in beauty, size, or excel- 

 lence. It arrives in the bays and estuaries of Puget Sound about the 

 middle of autumn, and toward the 1st of December commences to run 

 up the larger rivers emptying into the sound. Their ascent of these 

 streams continues through December and Jiinuary. This arrival of the 

 species in fresh water is not as simultaneous, neither do tbey arrive in 

 such, great numbers at any one time or in schools, as is the case with 

 the sicoivitz, and several other species, but the " run " being somewhat 

 more "drawn out" affords a stead^^, moderate supply to the Indians 

 during its continuance. In the fall and winter large numbers are taken 

 by the Indians from the salt water by trolling with hook and line in the 

 bays and coves of Paget Sound. The bait used is generally a small 

 kind of herring, a little larger than the common sardine of commerce. 

 After entering the rivers it is taken by the Indians in nets, traps, bas- 

 kets, and also by spearing. Its flesh when cooked is of a beautiful 

 salmon-red, and, as a table delicacy, Avhen fat, as it generally is when 

 " fresh run," ranks equally with that of the S. salar, the satsttp, or the 

 quinnat. The Cowlitz River, (a branch of the Columbia,) situated not 

 more than sixty miles from the head of Puget Sound, has salmon of 

 various species entering it at regular periods annually. Indians of in- 

 telligence have told me that the species under consideration is the only 

 kind common to both these waters. How far we can place reliance on 

 their statements is difficult to determine. 



The distinguishing characters which strike the eye at a glance are its 

 short and small head, the small weak teeth in the-jaws, and the shape of 

 its tail, which is trimcated, not forked. Mr. George Gibbs says that the 

 aS'. truncdfus {lilfsliin or Idut-cJiin) has the most solid meat of all the sal- 

 mon, and has a very small abdominal cavity. It keeps its depth to the 

 insertion of the tail, and weighs more in proportion than any other. 

 Body covered with small black, roundish spots ; back, dark olive; sides, 

 gray ; belly, white — gray behind ; nose straight. A specimen obtained 

 by him, 29 inches in length, had a girth in front of dorsal flu of 17 inches; 

 girth at insertion of caudal, 7 inches. Length of head, 5 inches ; nose to 

 dorsal fin, 13.75 inches; breadth of tail, (at extremities of lobes,) 6 inches. 

 Scales small ; weight, 9.75 pounds ; male. Whether this be the 

 sicicowl or not, the fact that slcicoivl enters the rivers in mid-winter and 

 is gone or exhausted when the 8. quinnat arrives, is of value, and will 

 afford a clue to the collector. 



