THE SALMON FAMILY. 



53 



have the hooked jaws and red color of the old 

 males. 



The average weight of the quinnat in the Colum- 

 bia, in the spring, is twenty-two pounds ; in the 

 Sacramento, about sixteen. Individuals weicrhinji 

 from forty to sixty pounds are frequently found in 

 both rivers, and some as high as eighty or even 

 one hundred pounds are recorded. It is questioned 

 whether these large fishes are those which, of the 

 same age, have grown more rapidly ; those which 

 are older, but have for some reason failed to 

 spawn ; or those which have survived one or more 

 spawning seasons. All these origins may be pos- 

 sible in individual cases ; we are, however, of the 

 opinion that the majority of these large fishes are 

 those which have hitherto run in the fall, and thus 

 having spawned not far from the sea, have survived 

 the spawning season of the previous year. 



Those fish which enter the rivers in the spring 

 continue their ascent till death or the spawning 

 season overtakes them. Probably none of them 

 ever return to the ocean, and a large proportion 

 fail to spawn. They are known to ascend the Sac- 

 ramento to its extreme head-waters, about four 

 hundred miles. In the Columbia they ascend as 

 far as the Bitter Root Mountains and at least 

 to the Spokane Falls, and their extreme limit is 

 not known. This is a distance of six to eight 

 hundred miles. At these great distances, when 

 the fish have reached the spawning grounds, be- 

 sides the usual changes of the breeding season, 

 their bodies are covered with bruises, on which 

 patches of white fungus develop. The fins become 



