4 AETIFICIAL. PROPAGATION OF PACIFIC SALMONS. 



average 70; gillrakers long and slender, 20 to 25 in number; anal 

 rays, 11 to 15, average 13; branchiostegals, 12 to 14. Body long; 

 head short, conic; snout blunt; eye small; fins small, caudal deeply 

 lunate. Color, bluish green, sides silvery, finely punctulated, as in the 

 chinook, but not so conspicuous. 



Chwm sahnon. — Scales of medium size, about 150 in lateral line; 

 pyloric coeca, 140 to 185 ; gillrakers from 20 to 25 ; 13 or 14 rays in 

 anal fin ; branchiostegals, 13 or 14. Form of chinook, but head 

 longer and more depressed. Dusky above and on head; paler on 

 sides; very fine spots on back and sides, often wanting; tail deeply 

 lunate, plain dusky or finely spotted, with black edge; other fins 

 blackish. 



These salmons are the most important gi'oup of fishes entering the 

 rivers of North America. The steelhead {Salmo gairdneri), popu- 

 larly regarded as a salmon, also inhabits the waters of the Pacific 

 coast and adds to the importance of the salmon tribe. 



In recent years the annual catch of salmon in the Pacific Coast 

 States, British Columbia, and Alaska has been approximately 

 585,000,000 pounds, with a value, as placed on the market, of nearly 

 $40,000,000. In 1918 the quantity of salmon canned was 7,829,212 

 cases of forty-eight 1 -pound cans. 



CHINOOK SALMON. 



The chinook salmon {Orworhynchus tschawytscha) is also known 

 by other names than those given above, as Columbia, Sacramento, 

 and tyee salmon. It is one of the most important of the salmons, 

 being superior in food qualities and attaining a vastly larger size 

 than any of the others. When fresh from the ocean, it is a very 

 handsome, resplendent, well-formed fish. The flesh is of a rich red 

 color in the greater number of individuals, but all runs contain a 

 smaller or larger percentage of fish having white meat. Buyers cut 

 into the shoulder of the fish for arriving at the color. The white 

 meat is equally as good as the red as a food, but the rich red fish 

 have the greater market value, both in the fresh condition and for 

 canning. 



No other salmon in the world compares in size with the chinook. 

 In the Yukon River, Alaska, it occasionally attains a weight of 

 over 100 pounds; and in the Columbia River there have been well- 

 authenticated cases of specimens weighing over 80 pounds. Far- 

 ther south the size is smaller, although in the Sacramento River indi- 

 viduals from 50 to 60 pounds in weight are not rare. In the Columbia 

 20 pounds is a fair average, and in the Sacramento about 16 pounds. 



The known range of the chinook in American waters is practically 

 from Monterey Bay (latitude 36^°) to the Yukon River, but indi- 

 viduals have been seen in Norton Sound, somewhat north of the 

 Yukon, and as far down the coast of California as the Santa Bar- 

 bara Channel. However, it is not known to spawn naturally in 

 any stream south of the Sacramento River. It extends across Bering 

 Sea to Kamchatka and south to Hokkaido, Japan. 



Fish of this species prefer the larger rivers, like the Sacramento, 

 Columbia, Skagit, Nushagak, and Yukon, and they are very per- 

 sistent in making the ascent. The summer and later runs seek 

 spawning grounds not far from the ocean, but the first or early 



