FISHERIES OF SACRAMENTO AND COLUMBIA RIVERS. 803 



Question. Has the abundance of the fish diminished or increased within 

 the last ten years, or is it about the same ? 



Answer. The salmon have not increased in the Columbia River during 

 the last ten years, and it is not known that they have diminished any. 

 Fewer Chinook salmon now make their appearance in the upper riv- 

 ers, but this is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that such a vast 

 quantity are now netted in the main river on their way up. On the 

 Willamette Kiver the fishermen claim that the saluion have very much 

 diminished, and that they caught only twenty or thirty now where 

 they used to catch a hundred. This is undoubtedly true, but it does 

 not prove that the salmon of the Columbia are diminishing, for it 

 may be, and probably is, only the natural result of so many tbousaud 

 more being stopped and caught in the main river below than there used 

 to be. This must, of course, lessen the number that enter the Willa- 

 mette. 



Question. If diminished or increased, what is the supposed cause ? 



Answer. 



Question. What is the amount, or extent, of the change in abun- 

 dance ? 



Answer. 



4.— Size. 



Question. What is the greatest size to which it attains (both length 

 and weight), and what the average? 



Answer. The largest specimen that I ever saw weighed had a length 

 of 35 inches, a girth of 31 inches, and a weight of 65^ pounds. One of 

 the fishermen told me that he saw one caught in May, 184:3, which 

 weighed 83 pounds. This is the largest Columbia River salmon that I 

 have heard of. The average weight is 22 or 23 pounds whole, and 16g 

 or 17 pounds dressed. Out of 98,000 salmon taken at Clifton, Oreg.. 

 in 1874, only one weighed as much as G5 pounds. 



Question. State the rate of growth per annum, if known, and the size 

 at one, two, three, or more years. 



Answer. The rate of growth is not known. There is every reason to 

 believe, however, that it is similar to that of the Sacramento salmon. 

 (See Report of United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1872- 

 '73, pp. 185, 186.) 



Question. Do the sexes differ in respect to shape, size, rate of growth, 

 &c.? 



Answer. In the spring the sexes are exactly alike in appearance. At 

 and near the spawning-season they differ very much. Their rate of 

 growth appears to be nearly the same. 



5. — Migrations and movements. 



Question. By what route do these fish come in to the shore, and what 

 the subsequent movements? 



