82 SALMON AND TROUT IN ALASKA. 



from Yes and Karta bays is but 7.2 pounds. The 128 females 

 measured show an average length (std.) of 532 mm. (465-570) and 

 an average weight of 6 pounds. The combined average of Karta 

 and Yes Bay females of similar length is about 6.3 pounds. 



The figures obtained are hardly sufficient to determine the change, 

 if any, incident to the varying periods of the run. Nowiskay is the 

 only locality in which the measurements were carried through a 

 considerable length of time. At this point, owing to the smallness 

 of the early July run, the dates extended from July 14 to 22, and 

 again to August 10, 12, and 31. In summing up these lots as July 

 fish and August fish it is observed that the average length of the 

 July fish is greater. Over 79 per cent of the whole number, 235, 

 measured in Jidy, are over 500 mm. (std.) in length, whereas of the 

 August fish, 277 in number, only 47 per cent exceed 500 mm. The 

 same fact is noticeable in the fish of Karta Bay in 1903. Of 55 

 measured the first of July nearly 62 per cent are 550 mm. (std.) or 

 over, whereas of 153 measured the latter part of that month only 

 45 per cent reach these lengths. These figures pertain only to the 

 males, the females showing less variation. At other stations the 

 daily distribution of sizes very closely resembles the totals, and a 

 curve plotted for any one day would not vary inaterially from the 

 curve for the total.** 



The fish of Yes Bay are found to be the heaviest and also the 

 deepest, those of Tamgas the lightest and relatively the most slender. 

 The former are about twice the average weight of the latter, one- 

 eighth longer (total), ami one-seventh greater in proportionate depth. 

 These are comparatively widely separated localities ; but the variation 

 between more adjacent regions, as Boca de Quadra and Tamgas, 

 while less than in the case of Yes Bay and Tamgas, is still marked. 

 A yet more interesting instance is seen in the streams of Moira Sound 

 and Dolomi. 



The average weight of fish from Nowiskay is nearly one-tliird 

 greater than that of the Dolomi fish, and they are nearly one-sixth 

 longer and of somewhat greater proportionate depth. These basins 

 are immediately adjacent and this difference is always well recognized 

 by the fishermen. It indicates one of three things: That the fish 

 exercise some selective instinct in choosing their spawning stream; 

 that they are practically limited in their feeding activity to a radius 

 of less than 10 miles, or that the currents are such that the product of 

 these two streams remain as separate schools in different areas. 



a At Karluk it is reported (Alexander, ms.) that the earliest-run sockeyes are small- 

 est, averaging 16 to the case when canned. As the season advances the size increases 

 until 11 or 11^ make a case; but again by the middle or latter part of August the size 

 falls to about that of the beginning. This may hold in other localities, the earliest of 

 the run passing unobserved by reason of the small number. 



