300 Reminiscences of 



for all the mastication its food receives, and its seizure 

 of small fish is confined to those which can be readily 

 swallowed whole. The hooked jaws of the large salmon 

 do not necessarily show that the possessors have had 

 a river spawning experience, for the hooked formation 

 is an accompaniment of age, as shown with trout. 



From the fact that the extra large salmon, of which 

 I have seen many casts, have not shown loss of fins* 

 or parts of tails, or have exhibited other mutilations, 

 such would seem to have escaped the river spawning 

 experiences, unless the bone rays of the fins and tails 

 have not by the process of nature been renewed. 

 This is rather improbable, and tends to the opinion 

 that these large salmon have escaped the river ex- 

 perience, so fatal to those of northern Pacific waters; 

 which critical application would not apply to the salmon 

 inhabiting the shorter European streams, from which 

 undoubtedly many salmon return to the sea after 

 spawning season, of which data is not at hand for con- 

 sideration. But that the northern rivers of the Pacific 

 on the American coast, as well as those of the opposite 

 Asian Kamtchatka waters where the salmon abound 

 most plentifully, all, or almost entirely all, terminate 

 most ingloriously their lives in the fatal season of repro- 

 duction, is clearly indicated. 



That the salmon of the Pacific Coast, in a commer- 

 cial sense, is far more valuable than all the rest of the 

 Pacific fishes combined, or of all the salmon availed 

 of elsewhere in the world, is indisputable. They 

 abound in such numbers as to give the canners from 

 California to Alaska a product of world-wide prom- 

 inence. The humble and unambitious codfish must 

 not be overlooked as of future great importance to 



