132 



The Blue-backs enter the Columbia along with the Chinooks early in the 

 spring, the height of the run being in the month of June; and the catch in the 

 lower Columbia amounts to several hundred thousand fish annually. Such as 

 escape the labyrinth of nets, traps and wheels which for miles literally fill 

 the lower Columbia, pass on to their spawning grounds. We do not yet know 

 just where all their spawning grounds in the Columbia basin are located, but we 

 do know that there are important ones in the inlets of Wallowa Lake in Oregon, 

 and Payette Lake and the Redfish Lakes in Idaho. 



It was not, however, until 1894 that any naturalist visited these lakes at the 

 spawning time and made any study of the spawning habits. 



In September of that year we made a brief visit to Alturas and Pettit lakes 

 and Big Payette Lake, where we found this salmon spawning. 



Big Payette Lake is situated near the head of Payette River about 120 miles 

 northeast from Weiser, Idaho. Alturas and Pettit lakes are two of a group 

 known as the Redfish Lakes, lying among the eastern spurs of the Sawtooth 

 Mountains, forty-five to seventy-five miles northwest from Ketchum, Idaho, the 

 nearest railroad station. These Redfish lakes are really the headwaters of Salmon 

 River, the principal tributary of the Snake, and their distance by water from 

 the sea is more than a thousand miles. 



The investigations of 1894 showed that the vicinity of tliose lakes afforded 

 excellent facilities for studying the habits of the salmon which spawn there, and 

 it was decided to visit them again in 1895. 



It should be here stated that the Blue-back salmon which enter the Columbia 

 River are no longer known by that name when they reach their spawning 

 grounds, but are known as Redfish. When they enter the river from the sea they 

 are a clear, bright blue above and silvery on the sides, but when they reach their 

 spawning grounds they have become more or less red, especially the males, which 

 are often a bright scarlet red on the back and sides, the head being a light olive- 

 green. At these Idaho lakes two forms of the Redfish have long been known to 

 occur, a large form weighing four to eight pounds and corresponding to the 

 regular Blue-backs taken in the mouth of the Columbia; the other is a small 

 form weighing almost invariably a half pound each and not corresponding to any 

 salmon ever taken in the lower Columbia. Structurally it does not appear 

 to differ from the large form in anything except size, and the two forms are 

 regarded as being specifically identical. 



But a number of (juestions concerning this fish were veiled in more i>r less 

 obscurity, among which may be mentioned the following : 



