The Pacific Salmon 



Concerning the habits and distribution of the sahnon we quote 

 (with such modifications as later observations necessitate) the fol- 

 lowing, based upon investigations made by Jordan, Evermann, and 

 Gilbert. 



Of the species of Oiicorhyuchtis, the blueback (O. ncrha) pre- 

 dominates in Fraser River and in the Yukon River, the silver 

 salmon (O. kisutch) in Puget Sound, the quinnat (O. tschaiiytscha ) 

 in the Columbia and the Sacramento, and the dog salmon in most 

 of the streams along the coast. All the species have been seen 

 by us in the Columbia and Fraser River; all but the blueback 

 in the Sacramento, and all in waters tributary to Puget Sound. 

 Only the quinnat or king salmon has been noticed south of San 

 Francisco. Its range has been traced as far as Ventura River. 

 Of these species, the king salmon and blueback salmon habit- 

 ually "run" in the spring, the others in the fall. The usual 

 order of running in the rivers is as follows: nerka, ischaivytscha, 

 kisiitch, gorbitscha, keta. According to early authors, the ischa- 

 wytscha precedes nerka in Kamchatka. 



The economic value of the spring-running salmon is far 

 greater than that of the other species, because they can be cap- 

 tured in numbers when at their best, while the others are usu- 

 ally taken only after deterioration. To this fact the worthlessness 

 of Oncorhynclins keta, as compared with the other species, is prob- 

 ably chiefly due. 



The habits of the salmon in the ocean are not easily studied. 

 King salmon and silver salmon of all sizes are taken with the 

 seine at almost any season in Puget Sound. This would indi- 

 cate that these species do not go far from the shore. The king 

 salmon takes the hook freely in Monterey Bay, both near the 

 shore and at a distance of 6 to 8 miles out. We have reason 

 to believe that these 2 species do not necessarily seek great 

 depths, but probably remain not very far from the mouth of the 

 rivers in which they were spawned. The blueback and the dog 

 salmon probably seek deeper water, as the former is seldom 

 taken with the seine in the ocean, and the latter is known to 

 enter the Straits of Fuca at the spawning season, therefore com- 

 ing in from the open sea. The run of the king salmon and the 

 blueback begins generally at the last of March; it lasts, with 

 various modifications and interruptions, until the actual spawning 

 season, August to November, the time of running and the propor- 



144 



