130 KAMSGHATKA. [chap. 



small red spots ; and such as have been two years out of the sea 

 are round and longish, with small heads ; and their flesh, which is 

 reddish white, is hard and well tasted. With regard to their size, 

 the first year they are long and small ; the second they grow more 

 in breadth than in length ; the third the head grows considerably ; 

 and the fourth, fifth, and sixth years their breadth and thickness 

 increases greatly : in the fourth year also the lower part to the 

 snout becomes hooked." 



Pallas adds that " these fish enter the rivers from the Eastern 

 ocean in great numbers ... in order to hybernate, being still with- 

 out spots. They are said to remain torpid during the winter in the 



GULTSi {SaZmo callaris. ) 



depths of rivers, in shoals of thousands, until at tlie return of spring 

 they seek the sea again, from about tlie 10th to the 20th of May. 

 They surmount cataracts of whatever height by leaping, and in the 

 same manner escape from nets one fathom deep. They force their 

 way into the Kuril Lake near the Elver Kamschatka,^ notwith- 

 standing a very high cataract, and hybernate in it in large numbers. 

 Many remain for a long time in the rivers and lakes, but the 

 greater number return in spring to the sea. When they come up from 

 the sea they are without the red tint and spots, and shine with 

 a silvery lustre ; during the ascent they become gradually spotted 

 with red, while they acquire a more or less red tint beneath the 

 belly and on the fins, according to the comparative rapidity of the 

 river currents." 



Both the above accounts are very difficult to reconcile with that 



^ It is difficult to understand what lake is here meant. The Kuril Lake is at 

 least 170 miles distant from the nearest point of the Kanischatka River. 



