Ward. — Migration of the Sockeye Salmon 409 



visit some other places, indicates clearly the difference in the 

 expenditure of energy on the trip from the sea. 



It was not merely with respect to the absence of disfiguring 

 wounds that the salmon of these lakes commanded our special 

 attention. They were plump and full-meated, the flesh firmer 

 and the body less wasted than in the case of salmon at corre- 

 sponding periods of sexual maturity in other regions. It 

 would be unwise to attribute the perfect condition of these 

 fish solely to the favorable character of the highway that had 

 served as the route for their migration. These northern 

 waters are also radically lower in temperature than the waters 

 of more southerly streams, and that factor must certainly 

 have been of some influence. It may also be that the fish at 

 the start of their migration were in better condition, more 

 richly supplied with reserve material, and more vigorous in 

 general than those in other regions. In order to test the char- 

 acter of the flesh, we tried a fully ripe fish on the spawning 

 grounds, and found that the flesh, though not comparable with 

 that of a fish in prime condition, was still possessed of the 

 salmon flavor and in every way thoroughly palatable. 



One other item is worthy of note with reference to the 

 condition of these fish. Among the dead specimens which 

 were thrown up on shore were found a number of females in 

 which the eggs were not yet fully discharged. Such fish were 

 frequent enough to attract our attention. They seemed on 

 examination to be in good physical condition; the substance 

 of the body was not in any apparent way more wasted than 

 that of other fish that were fully spawned out ; the eggs them- 

 selves were ripe, apparently not matted, attached, or in any 

 way mechanically prevented from reaching the exterior ; so that 

 one was entirely at a loss to suggest why in this case an 

 amount of eggs totaling in the extreme perhaps one-fourth 

 or one-fifth of the entire egg mass should have remained in 

 the body not discharged by the process of spawning. 



