20 SALMON AND TEOUT IN ALASKA. 



about 1.87; gillrakers about 5-9, the longest about equal to diameter of the very small 

 pupil and spanning one interspace. An irregular row of alternating blotches below 

 the parr marks, faintly present in fry, becomes more distinct and the back becomes 

 thickly mottled with spots about size of pupil; otherwise the color much as in fry. 

 This species is unusually thick (laterally) in proportion to depth, and is not so much 

 flattened as the salmons and true trouts. This character becomes noticeable in the 

 fingerlings, and together with the peculiar mottling makes them readily distinguish- 

 able without counting the anal. 



THE BASINS STUDIED. 



The two regions from which most of the original material in this 

 paper is derived are tlie basins of the Naha and the Karluk rivers. 

 From the Naha as a central locality, the conditions existing in 

 adjacent basins received some attention, and salmon from Yes Bay, 

 Karta Bay, Moira Sound, Boca de Quadra, and the streams of Annette 

 Island were examined. These latter waters have been described in 

 the reports of the operations of the steamer Albatross in Alaska.*^ 

 The accompanying sketch map of the Naha region illustrates typical 

 conditions as found in most of the smaller sockeye streams in Alaska. 



CONDITIONS CONTROLLING THE WORK. 



The Naha as an observation station is ill adapted for a small party 

 on account of its complexity and extent, though rendered advanta- 

 geous by the Alaska Packers' Association establishment and the 

 generous assistance extended by that corporation. The successful 

 conduct of any inquiry, however, requires either a sufficient number 

 of observers to carry on the work simultaneously at all parts of the 

 area to be covered, or a sufficiently small area to permit the party 

 available to cover the entire territory readily; and of indispensable 

 importance in fishery investigations is sufficient apparatus, such as 

 boats, suitable nets, etc., to apply continuously any given line of 

 experiment or study. For the best work on the Naha the absolute 

 control of at least 4 boats would have been necessary, and even with 

 this complement, the distance from the nearest habitable quarters 

 at the mouth of the stream to the spawning ground of the fish is such 

 that the round trip is practically a day's journey, leaving little time 

 for observations en route or at the extremity of the trip. Another 

 complicating feature, objectionable from one standpoint, desirable 

 from another, is the presence of the brackish-water lagoon. Had it 

 been possible readily to reach the mouth of the river above the lagoon, 

 the trap could have been set there, as was to be desired; the lagoon 



a Moser, Bulletin U. S. Fish Commission, vol. xviii, 1898, p. 1-178, and vol. xxi, 

 1901, p. 173-398, and 399*-401*. It should be noted that in the descriptions of 

 the Moira Sound region, vol. xviii, p. 78-80, the descriptions for Kegan and Old 

 Johnson stream have been transposed ; the figures for the catch, however, are correctly 

 assigned. 



