264 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



THE SALMONS. 

 SOOKBYE SALMON. 



The sock eye salmon, as the blueback salmon or redflsh, the Onco- 

 rhynchus nerl<a (Walbaum) of naturalists, is known in this region, is 

 here much the most important of its tribe, being especially in demand 

 for canning purposes, owing to the depth and stability of its color and 

 the firmness of its flesh, although in edible qualities it ranks below the 

 quinnat. It has, moreover, quite regular and well-defined movements, 

 and, beginning to run at a comparatively early date, it affords a con- 

 siderable fishery so far in advance of the spawning season as to insure 

 an excellent quality of catch. Its size is also in its favor, being quite 

 uniform. In the Fraser River it generally averages about 7 to 8 pounds, 

 though sometimes weighing not over C pounds, and occasionally, but 

 rarely, reaching 10 and even 12 pounds. 



IN THE SALT WATER. 



The sockeye which frequent the Gulf of Georgia and Puget Sound 

 are supposed by the fishermen to enter from the ocean exclusively 

 through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and such few facts bearing ujion the 

 subject as have been collected tend to confirm this view. The species 

 has never been observed in the upper part of the Gulf, and very rarely, 

 if at all, to the north of Point Grey, at the entrance to Burrard Inlet. 

 Some sockeye, which are said to average smaller than those of the 

 Fraser River run, enter the passageway at the northern end of Van- 

 couver Island and ascend the Nimkish River at Alert Bay, and possibly 

 other small rivers in that locality, but none of these fish appear to 

 reach the Gulf of Georgia. 



On the outer coast, both to the north and south of the entrance to 

 the Strait of Juan de Fuca, there are still other runs which are also 

 distinguished by the smaller size of the fish, averaging from 4 to 5 

 pounds apiece. Very little is known regarding their abundance or 

 habits, as the region is sparsely settled, but they are reported to enter 

 only certain rivers, those having lakes in their upper courses. All of 

 these rivers are small, but some of them, on the Vancouver Island 

 coast at least, are apparently resorted to by suflBcient quantities of fish 

 for the maintenance of canneries on a small scale. Operations of this 

 character were started in 1895 on Kennedy River, a short clear stream 

 draining a lake of the same name and emptying into the southern end 

 of Clayoquot Sound. The season there is said to correspond with that on 

 the Fraser River, extending from early in July until the last of August, 

 but south of Cape Flattery an earlier period is given for the commence- 

 ment of the runs, though on somewhat doubtful authority. 



All of the evidence collected goes to show that the sockeye entering 

 theGulf of Georgia and Puget Sound constitute a distinct run, which, 

 approaching from the sea, throws off no schools toward the north or 



