54 American Fisheries Society 





uniformly, or mainly, on that type of food; but more 

 commonly on food destitute of such red coloring matter, 

 it is absurd to explain the redness of the muscles in sal- 

 mon or trout by deriving it specially from color sub- 

 stances in their food. Further, it is a matter of common 

 knowledge that the color in these fishes varies and may 

 be deep or pale, and, indeed, may be absent. 



Variability in Salmon Schools. 



The fact cannot be ignored that salmon and trout, with 

 white flesh, occur in the same waters, and often mingled 

 in the same schools, with red-fleshed salmon and trout. 

 The large King Salmon, Quinnat, or Spring Salmon of 

 Pacific waters, is normally red-fleshed, often pinkish ; but 

 very commonly of a deep red tint; yet white-fleshed ex- 

 amples are common. Those with white flesh are so fre- 

 quent in the Fraser River that buyers of Quinnat salmon 

 always adopt the practice of having a deep cut made in 

 the shoulder, in order to determine whether it has white 

 flesh or red flesh, the former being unmarketable and re- 

 jected accordingly. More curious still is the fact that in 

 quite a number of these salmon the flesh is piebald. The 

 white flesh in such cases is streaked with red, the red 

 masses being mingled, in this way, with the white. Again, 

 in the Sockeye Salmon (also called the Blueback and the 

 Redfish) the muscles are so uniformly of a very deep, 

 bright red, that owing to this constant and uniform color, 

 and a uniformity in size, as well as extreme abundance, 

 it has come to rank as the Pacific Salmon of prime com- 

 mercial importance. 



The great markets of the world do not prefer a pale 

 red salmon; but demand the brilliant deep red, almost 

 vermilion, of the Sockeye salmon's flesh, especially the 

 Fraser River Sockeye caught in Southern British Colum- 

 bia, Puget Sound, and Juan de Fuca Straits. The Sock- 

 eye, and the Spring Salmon (or Quinnat) schools may 

 intermingle. They often come in together from the open 

 sea and ascend the rivers at the same time, and associat- 

 ing in this way, fattening, it may be, upon the same great 



