140 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



eggs are passed by the men, Avho remove only those which are 

 sound. The gull, then returning to the field of its exploits, 

 procures a plentiful supply of its favorite food." 



§ 107. Fishes. — The fishes of the coast and rivers of Califor- 

 nia are all different from those of the Atlantic side of the conti- 

 nent, with the exception, perhaps, of one sj^ecies of the halibut. 

 The cod and shad, two of the most important fishes of the sea 

 of the Eastern shore, and the lobster among crustaceans, are 

 here wanting, as also the cat-fish kind in the rivers. Otherwise 

 our waters are probably as rich in game for the fisherman as 

 those of any country. 



§ 108. Salmon. — The most important fish of California is the 

 quinnat salmon [Salmo quinnat\ a species found from Point 

 Conception to the Columbia River. Its color aboA^e is oliva- 

 ceous brown, changing to salmon-color beneath. The largest 

 one ever caught weighed sixtj-two pounds ; the common size 

 is from ten to thirty pounds. The salmon are born in the rivers, 

 but go down to the sea, where they spend part of every year. 

 They commence to enter the bay of San Francisco in N'ovem- 

 ber, and continue to come in for three or four months. They 

 ascend the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and some of 

 their smaller tributaries, deposit their spawn, and in .June go 

 out to sea again. They come in lean and go out lean, but in the 

 late winter and early spring they are fat. There are two com- 

 mon popular errors, that the salmon do not eat after leaving 

 the sea, and that they never get back alive. The former error 

 is owins^ to the fact that no laro-e articles of food are found in 

 its stomach, and the latter to the fact that when going out all 

 are lean, and that many are found dead along the banks of 

 salmon-streams. But the salmon find their chief food in mi- 

 nute animalculce, and not in fish, for catching which they seem 

 to be so well fitted, with their large mouths and sharp teeth. 

 It is well known that the salmon bite like trout, and furnish 

 excellent sport in clear vv ater to the skilfid fisherman with the 

 fly. They dislike the mud with which the streams emptying 

 into San Francisco Bay are filled by the miners, and therefore 



