214 Sport and Life. 



Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. In an 

 accompanying letter Mr. Mowat explained that the two fish were 

 fair samples of the September run, and in their external appearance 

 were in every respect the same as the quinnat that run in June and 

 July. " I found," he continues, " in making an examination that 

 some of the run is pure white, some very pale pink bordering on 

 white, some a little darker pink, and others a full colour, as per 

 sample sent. I also find some of them white on the outside near 

 the skin for about an inch in depth, then they gradually turn a pale 

 pink, deepening in colour as the bone is reached. There are a few 

 dsh of this description found in the June and July run, but the 

 majority of the quinnat salmon running now (September) are 

 white or pale pink. In concluding his letter, Mr. Mowat states 

 his belief, from careful examination, that the white and red fish 

 are one and same species (O. chowicka}. Mr. K. Ito, Fish 

 Commissioner of Japan, also agreed with this, having made an 

 examination when visiting the Pacific coast. He considered that 

 they were a different species of white salmon from those found on 

 the Asiatic coast. When Mr. Mowat's letter and the two salmon 

 reached Washington, the Smithsonian Institution and the American 

 people had just sustained an irreparable loss by the sudden death 

 of Prof. Baird. In consequence, the newly-appointed United 

 States Fish Commissioner, Prof. G. Brown Goode, replied to the 

 above letter. He pronounced the white and the red salmon to 

 belong to the same species. 



The canning industry on the Columbia river is rather older than 

 Dr. Giinther supposes when he gives the year 1870 as the one that 

 witnessed its commencement. It began on that most important 

 and earliest known of the Pacific coast rivers in the year 1866, 

 and, as a glance at the rapid growth of the industry, at the 

 corresponding increase in the cost of the fish, and fall in the price 

 received for the canned salmon, shows the extraordinary rapidity 

 with which a new industry is developed by the cute Westerner 

 and is, consequently, overdone I append a table covering 

 twenty-five years, and giving (i) the number of cases packed (each 



