49 



THE ALASKAN SALMON AND THEIR ALLIES. 



By Tarleton H. Bean, Ichthyologist of the 

 United States Fish Commission. 



The greatest wealth of Alaska is rei)resented by its fishes, 

 and among these by far the most important are the mem- 

 bers of the salmon family and other closely related forms, 

 snch as the white-fishes, grayling, smelt, and capelin. 

 The salmon alone represent an annual value for canning- 

 purposes of about $3,000,000, derived almost entirely from 

 three species. 



The undeveloped resources which may be obtained from 

 the salmon-like fishes have undoubtedly equal importance 

 with the material now utilized. 



In March of the present year, I delivered an address on 

 the salmon of Alaska, in the National Museum, under the 

 auspices of the scientific societies of Washington. This 

 lecture was published in part in Forest and Stream of 

 April 3rd and April 10th, 1890, and is made, to a consid- 

 erable extent, the basis of the remarks which follow : 



For eighteen centuries literature has noted the passage 

 from sea to stream of the anadromous salmon. Nobody 

 knows whence it came, no one can tell whither it strays. 

 River and lake, perhaps since tertiary times, have fur- 

 nished it a birthjDlace and a scant subsistence, while gen- 

 erous ocean has given it sea room and ample nourishment, 

 converting it gradually into a thing of beauty, majesty, 

 and mystery— the crowning reward of the angler's skill 

 and a prime recompense of the toil of fishery. 



No princij^al division of the earth's surface within Arctic 

 and temperate limits, except South America, lacks repre- 

 sentatives of the salmon family. Even in South America 

 man has attemi^ted to supply what nature has omitted, 

 but we are not yet informed of the result of the exj)eriment. 

 Tasmania and New Zealand have demonstrated the prac- 



