VI.] THE TGHERVITCm. 125 



weight was given by Afanasi as " over two poods," which would be 

 72 lbs. We did not see any fish of tliis size, but a salmon, most 

 probably of this species, was caught by the Dido's men in 1855, the 

 weight of which is given by Tronson as 76 lbs. There is no douljt 

 that they commonly run to as much as fifty or sixty pounds. The 

 Tchervitchi is proper to the Kamschatka and Okhotsk Seas, ap- 

 parently not being found elsewhere. According to Steller, it only 

 frequents the larger rivers, and does not exist to the north of the 

 56tli parallel. He gives the date of its arrival as April 20th for 

 the Kamschatka Eiver, May 10th for the Bolchaia-reka, and June 

 for the rivers in AA^atcha Bay. According to Afanasi, it comes up 

 the Kamschatka River "early in ]\Iay," and gets out of season 

 in July. It certainly appears, as far as we could learn from 

 the natives, to wait for some days at the mouths of the rivers 

 before ascending them, which it does in shoals so large that, 

 as Pallas tells us,^ a little wave of water is driven up in front of 

 them. 



We did not meet with the Tchervitchi until we got to the 

 Kamschatka Eiver in early September. The inhabitants had then 

 long since ceased catching them, and very few remained in the 

 river. The balagans and drying sheds were, however, full of them, 

 and many seemed not to have been in cpiite clean condition at the 

 time of catching. As a kelt, the fish becomes marked with red on 

 the sides, producing a streaked appearance, and the rostrum be- 

 comes hooked, especially in the male, though apparently not nearly 

 to the same extent as in the Garbusa and other species. From the 

 time of entering the river the TcherAdtchi is said by Pallas never 

 to feed. We made no inquiries of the people as to this point, but 

 they told us that a certain, though very small proportion of this 

 species do not die, but manage eventually to regain the sea. The 

 flesh is of a rather pale red in colour, and is esteemed by the natives 

 above that of any other fish. 



2. Oncorliynchus lycaodon (Pall.) — This salmon is known to 



^ " Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica," vol. iii. p. 368. 



