58 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



the dog salmon is practically almost worthless, ex- 

 cept to the Indians, and the humpback salmon 

 is little better. The silver salmon, with the same 

 breeding habits as the dog salmon, is more valu- 

 able, as it is found in the inland waters of Puget 

 Sound for a considerable time before the fall rains 

 cause the fall runs, and it may be taken in large 

 numbers with seines before the season for entering 

 the rivers. The quinnat salmon, from its great size 

 and abundance, is more valuable than all the other 

 fishes on our Pacific coast taken together. The blue- 

 back, similar in flesh, but much smaller and less 

 abundant, is worth much more than the combined 

 value of the three remaining species of salmon. 



The fall salmon of all species, but especially of 

 the dog salmon, ascend streams but a short dis- 

 tance before spawning. They seem to be in great 

 anxiety to find fresh water, and many of them 

 work their way up little brooks only a few inches 

 deep, where they perish miserably, floundering 

 about on the stones. Every stream, of whatever 

 kind, has more or less of these fall salmon. 



It is the prevailing impression that the salmon 

 have some special instinct which leads them to 

 return to spawn in the same spawning grounds 

 where they were originally hatched. We fail to 

 find any evidence of this in the case of the Pacific 

 coast salmon, and we do not believe it to be true. 

 It seems more probable that the young salmon 

 hatched in any river mostly remain in the ocean 

 within a radius of twenty, thirty, or forty miles of 

 its mouth. These, in their movements about in 

 the ocean, may come into contact with the cold 



