SOME OBSERVATIONS ON SALMON AND TROUT IN ALASKA, 



By F. M. Chamberlain, 

 Naturalist, U. S. Fisheries Steamer Albatross. 



INTRODUCTION. 



To assist in the solution of various problems, it was deemed desir- 

 able in connection with the Alaska salmon investigation of 1903 to 

 establish shore stations. The work at these stations was to comprise 

 not only the study of the habits of the salmon in fresh waters and adja- 

 cent bays, but, in addition, a reconnaissance of all the neighboring 

 basins with reference to available hatchery sites, observation of the 

 methods employed in taking fish for the canneries, an inquiry into the 

 sea habitat and the factors influencing the return of the adult fish, an 

 inquiry into the efficiency of the hatcheries then operated, and a gen- 

 eral study of the biological features of territory immediately adjacent 

 to the stations. The facilities offered by the establishments of the 

 Alaska Packers' Association at Loring and at Karluk determined the 

 adoption of the Naha and Karluk rivers as localities for this work.*^ 



The greater part of the data obtained at these shore stations is con- 

 tained in unpublished reports. In the present paper are presented such 

 of the facts as bear upon the natural history of the salmon and, with a 

 view to the application of these results in future work, some notes on 

 the methods used in the inquiry. Most of the material contained 

 herein relates to young salmon, but the known facts in the life of the 

 adult, including the spawning period, are considered, and mention is 

 made also of the trout as associated with the salmon. A chapter 

 differentiating and describing the species, particularly in the finger- 



<^ The observations in the latter region were made between the early part of May and 

 September, 1903, by the late Cloudsley Rutter, naturalist of the steamer Albatross, 

 assisted by M. H. Spaulding, of Stanford University. At Loring the work was carried 

 on during 1903 and 1904 in charge of the writer, assisted at different times by E. L. 

 Goldsborough and H. D. Aller, of the Bureau of Fisheries, and H. C. Fassett, fishery 

 expert on the steamer Albatross. During the summer of 1905 observations along some 

 of the above lines were continued by the writer at Yes Bay, in connection with other 

 workoftheylZ6a?ros.5, with the assistance of Mr. Fassett and of J. S. Burcham,of Stanford 

 University. 



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