CHAPTER IX. 



THE SALMON OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



IN a region where settlers feed their cows with canoe loads of 

 salmon, and where pigs and bear grow fat and sleek on the same 

 diet, it is but natural that there is much that is new to be learnt by 

 the traveller interested in ichthyology. The following stray notes 

 upon the salmonoids found in the rivers, lakes, and along the 

 coast of Western North America are the result of such unscientific 

 observations as any "globe trotter" has the opportunity of 

 making. 



If, as some authorities claim, there are five, six, or seven 

 different kinds of salmon in the waters of the Pacific Slope, there 

 are at least seven times seven different classifications and names 

 for them, for there exists an extraordinary confusion and divergence 

 of opinion among persons claiming to be authorities upon this 

 question. We have, first, the practical abhorers of all theories, i.e., 

 the fishermen who catch the various species of salmon ; then there 

 is the cannery man, who exploits by legal and illegal means this 

 Vast source of wealth ; then there is the local " scientist," who, if 

 he is not as well up in ichthyology as he should be, has made a 

 study of it "since he first came to the Slope " ; then we have the 

 American bond fide scientific man, hailing from the Smithsonian or 

 kindred institute ; and lastly, but not least, we have the political 

 fish authority, whose appointment to the post of Fishery Inspector, 

 or Fishery Commissioner, be it by the Dominion or the United 

 States authorities, is not the result of his possessing any special 



