THE SALMON AND TROUT OF ALASKA. 37 



median line, and the tail and dorsal fins are covered 

 with them ; the second dorsal adipose, but less so than 

 that of the fontanalis, having a slight show of mem- 

 brane, on which there are four spots ; ventral and anal 

 fins, yellowish in centre, bordered with red ; belly, dull 

 white ; tail, nearly square ; scales, quite large, about 

 the size of those of a fingerling chub ; flesh, firm ; and 

 skin, not slimy. No signs of ova or milt." 



On the 28th of April, 1880, I made note : " The 

 first salmon of the season made their debut to-day — 

 that is, if they are salmon, which I doubt. 



"Five beauties, from thirty to forty inches long, were 

 brought alongside, in a canoe paddled by a wild-looking 

 and awe-struck Si wash, who, with his crouching Kloot oil- 

 man and papoose, gazed upon our ship, guns, and us 

 with an expression that showed them to be unfamiliar 

 sights. He was evidently a stranger, and was taken in, 

 for he took willingly two bits (25 cents) each for the 

 fish, and no Sitka Siwash but would have charged treble 

 the price. Through an interpreter, I learned that he had 

 spent the last seven months in a shanty on the western 

 side of Kruzoff Island, and that well up, among the 

 foot-hills of Mount Edgecomb, there was a little lake, 

 from which there flowed a small stream into the Pacific, 

 and that in the headwaters of this stream he had speared 

 these fish, which run up the stream in the fall, remain 

 all winter in the lake, and in early spring spawn in the 

 head of the outlet." 



All of this militated strongly against the theory that 



