28 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. IX. 



River salmon for that year amounted to 1,934,431 or well on toward 

 2,000,000 cases, 96,000,000 pounds. But it is not in the Fraser River 

 alone that the fish run. In the north there are two other rivers of fair 

 size, though much smaller than the Fraser, which also contribute largely 

 to the salmon pack. On the Skeena River, which drains Lake Babine, a 

 favourite spawning ground, the pack of 1905 amounted to 114,085 cases 

 and from the still smaller Naas River, opening into Portland Canal, the 

 pack in that same year amounted to 32,725 cases. Furthermore, along 

 the coast in various inlets a sufficient number of salmon are taken to war- 

 rant the operation of canneries. Rivers Inlet, for instance, yielding a 

 pack in 1905 of 83,122 cases. Dean Channel 13,890 cases, and the Bella 

 Coola district 10,029, while smaller packs were put up at other points on 

 the mainland and on the West Coast of Vancouver Island as, for instance, in 

 Clayoquot Sound and the Alberni Canal. Taking the entire pack of the 

 Canadian canneries for 1905, it will be found to amount to 1,167,460 

 cases, and if to this be added the pack of the State of Washington canner- 

 ies operating on Puget Sound there results the enormous amount of 

 2,224,755 cases, in round numbers 106,800,000 pounds, as the total pack 

 of British Columbia salmon in 1905. It may be added that the value of 

 the pack from the Canadian canneries was $6,621,942. 



But the cannery pack constitutes only a portion of the salmon catch , 

 for the Dom.inion Fishery Report contains the following additional items : 



Salmon fresh or on ice 8,456,960 lbs. 



Smoked salmon 446,000 lbs. 



Dried salmon 15,494,600 lbs. 



Adding these items to the cannery pack we get 131,185,896 pounds as the 

 1905 catch, without counting 5,220, barrels of salted fish. These addi- 

 tional items bring the value of the catch of Pacific Salmon in Canadian 

 waters in 1905 up to $8,330, 7 13. 



This catch is almost entirely made up of fish taken in the sea on their 

 way to the rivers or in the rivers near their mouths, for as the fish ascend 

 the rivers they undergo marked changes which greatly diminish their value 

 for food purposes. As it comes from the sea throughout the summer the 

 Sockeye salmon is a splendid, graceful fish, whose lines suggest great 

 activity and power. In colour he is silvery throughout, although on the 

 back the silver overlies a ground of clear bright blue, whence the name 

 "Blue-back" applied to the fish in some localities. But as the spawning 

 season approaches the colour alters very remarkably; the skin becomes 

 thicker and softer, so that the scales appear to be more deeply imbedded 



