148 Fish Stories 



in the aggregate, for it runs in countless millions in Alaska. 

 But it is a smaller fish, the average being six to ten pounds. 

 Its flesh is drier, redder and coarser. In the sea, and in the 

 early runs, its body is bright metallic blue in color, with 

 white belly, unspotted. Later, the body turns crimson-red, 

 while the head takes a shade of olive-green. 



The names blueback and red salmon are both appropriate, 

 according to the season. The red salmon spawns only in 

 streams which flow into lakes. A stream without a lake 

 never has a red salmon. Hence there are none in the Sacra- 

 mento or Rogue Rivers. In the lake-fed Fraser River, in 

 the Karluk River, and in the rivers about Bristol Bay, red 

 salmon run in numbers literally fabulous. There are many 

 in the Columbia. They run with the Chinook salmon, but 

 sometimes, when a stream forks, each salmon goes its way ; 

 the Chinook to the snow-fed branches, the red salmon to 

 the head of the lakes. The distance from the sea is imma- 

 terial. At Boca de Quadra, in Alaska, the river from the 

 lake to the sea is not ten rods long, yet it is crowded with 

 red salmon. In the Yukon, the red salmon range up the 

 river to Lake Labarge, the first lake, about eighteen hundred 

 miles. 



The silver salmon (Oncorhynchus milktschitch) is of 

 about the same size as the red salmon, and of much the same 

 grade as food. It is faintly spotted, the top of the dorsal 

 fin is blackish. Its scales are less fine than in the red salmon 

 and more lustrous, and it does not turn red in the summer. 



This species abounds all along the shore, especially north- 

 ward. It runs but a short distance to spawn, rarely over 

 a mile. For this reason it cannot easily be taken in large 

 numbers. Its flesh is much paler than in the king salmon, 

 or the red salmon, hence, notwithstanding its excellence, it 

 brings a lower price when canned. It is then sold as Coho, 

 or as " medium red." 



The dog salmon or calico salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) 

 has much the same habits, and it is common along shore 



