16 



DEPARTMENT OF THE XAYAL SERVICE 



The table to show the ratio of weight to length in the soekeye is subject to the 

 same limitation as that given for the spring salmon. 



RATIO OF WEIGHT TO LENGTH IN SOCKEYE. 



All of these data serve as a basis for a comparison of the soekeye from the four 

 different localities and of all of these with those of the preceding year. Taking in 

 the first place, those from the different localities in 1917, the striking similarity 

 throughout of the fish from Deepwater bay, Victoria and Fraser river, as distinct 

 from those from Sauch-en-auch creek is a very noticeable feature. There are some 

 points in common to all. In each the four year class of the one year stream type is 

 very decidedly predominant. All of the other classes in this and the other types being 

 poorly represented but yet there are representatives of the two year stream type and of 

 the sea tj])e in all localities. In each locality, in all fish of the stream type the increase 

 in length during the first year at sea is greater than that of any of the following years 

 but in the sea type, the first year growth is not so great as the* second. It is in the 

 growth examined more in detail that the resemblance in the fish from the first three 

 localities is so marked and the difference between these and the fish from ^Sauch-en- 

 auch creek becomes evident. 



It has long been recognized that the route taken by at least a large number of the 

 Fraser river fish passes through the strait of Fuca and on through Haro and Rosario 

 straits and the connecting channels and therefore it is not surprising that the fish 

 caught off Victoria should be similar to those caught in the Fraser river, but the possi- 

 bility that some of the Fraser river soekeye should come by way of Queen Charlotte 

 sound and Johnstone strait was not generally suspected. Professor Prince, Dominion 

 Comm-ssioner of Fisheries, had publicly expressed the opinion, based on observations 

 made on a scientific cruise upon the Canadian Fishery cruiser Quadra, that large 

 numbers of soekeye salmon approached the Fraser river from the north (see Colonist, 



