164 The Pacific Salmons 



scarcely inferior in food value to any other 

 salmon, but until very recently it has not entered 

 largely into the food supply, the chief consump- 

 tion being by Alaskan natives. 



The Silver Salmon 



The silver salmon {^Oncorhynchus kisutcJi) is also 

 known as silversides, skowitz, kisutch, hoopid, 

 and coho salmon. It has a graceful form, and a 

 brilliant silvery skin. It may be further distin- 

 guished by the comparatively few pyloric caeca 

 (forty-five to eighty in number), by the long and 

 slender gill-rakers, of which there are about 

 twenty-three, the short, conical head, long body, 

 small eye, and deeply forked tail. It abounds in 

 short coast streams in Oregon and Washington, 

 and is taken in large numbers in the Columbia 

 River, Puget Sound, and elsewhere. It ranges 

 from San Francisco to Alaska, and thence down 

 the coast of Asia as far as Japan. Although it 

 sometimes attains a weight of thirty pounds, its 

 average weight in the United States is only eight 

 pounds, but in Alaska it is nearly twice as large. 

 In fall and early winter it runs up the streams to 

 spawn, not usually ascending long distances from 

 the ocean. 



