92 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



(6) The dog salmon, Oncorhynehus heta (Walbauni). in known also as 

 calico salmon, and, by the Russians, as haylio; in Japan, where it is 

 especially abundant, it is called sal'c,; to the trade it is known as chum. 

 Next to the chinook, the dog salmon is the largest of the five species, 

 reaching a weight of 16 pounds. The average of many examples 

 weighed at Kell Bay was 8.28 pounds. It is a plump, silvery fish 

 when fresh from the sea, and at that time closely resembles the silver 

 salmon. Later the dark of the back tends to form vertical bars on the 

 sides, and in the breeding season the body becomes largely dirty black, 

 obscurely barred with dirty red, and the jaws become greatly elon- 

 gated and distorted. The species enters all sorts of rivers and small 

 streams late in the fall, but does not ascend them to any great distance 

 from the sea. It is very abundant in southeast Alaska, and can be 

 taken in almost 2my stream from the Columbia to the rivers of northern 

 Japan. 



The flesh of the dog salmon is very pale, with little of the salmon 

 flavor and none of its color. When fresh in the spring and early 

 summer, it is well flavored and wholesome, but when canned it is dirty 

 white, soft and mushy, and with a strong muddy taste. As the spawn- 

 ing time approaches the flesh becomes still more pale and mushy. It 

 is then wholly unfit for canning and there is little market for it. 



This salmon takes salt well. In Japan, where it is the largest and 

 most abundant salmon, great quantities are salted, and it is in Japan 

 that a market is found for the considerable (juantities malted in Alaska. 

 When taken in the spring, frozen fresh, and sent in cold storage to the 

 East and to Germany, it sells readily. 



The relative food values of the five diflerent species of Pacific salmon 

 when canned may be roughly expressed by the five digits, thus: chi- 

 nook, 5; red salmon, 4; coho, 3; humpback, 2, and dog salmon, 1. 

 The coho might be placed at 3.5, or even a little closer to the red. 

 The canned product has at the present time approximately these 

 relative values, but the aggregate value of the red salmon now exceeds 

 that of the chinook. 



Besides the five species of salmon, five species of trout are found in 

 Alaska. These are the steelhead, Dolly Varden, cutthroat, rainbow, 

 and Great Lakes trout. 



Commercially, the steelhead {Sahno (jairdneri) is the most important 

 of the trouts, but it is not abundant anywhere, though frequently taken 

 in southeast Alaska about the mouths of the larger streams, which it 

 enters for the purpose of spawning. It is a fine large fish, reaching a 

 weight of 10 to 35 pounds, and ma}^ be distinguished from any species 

 of salmon by its smaller anal fin, its numerous black spots, and its short 

 head. As a fresh fish it is excellent for food, and when frozen finds 

 a ready market in the East. It is sometimes salted, but is not much 

 used for canning in Alaska, chiefly because it is not obtainable in large 



