322 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



skill. Who can describe it, and the enthusiasm (and appetite) it breeds ? 

 There is the cast of the fly, the strike of the fish, and then his struggles, all 

 of which must be met, until, at last, he is safe in the landing-net. The 

 pen of a Walton only is equal to the task. 



The largest salmon on record was brought to London in 1821 ; it 

 weighed eighty-three pounds. The largest taken in America was a fish of 

 sixty pounds. Salmon weighing forty pounds are more common, but hi the 

 rivers of Maine the majority weigh but ten or twelve. 



The salmon of the Pacific differ so in their characters from the Atlantic 

 species, that they are arranged under a different head, and yet in their 

 flesh they are almost identical. Both have the same rich, oily, pink flesh, 

 and both cloy the appetite much sooner than some of their relatives, and 

 after one has had enough he no longer wonders at the protest of the Con- 

 necticut youth already alluded to. There are five species of Pacific salmon 



'«. '*,'> % 



** *;!» fmmmm-m^^^^^m 



^T^^i;w>ii'i'jYr."''"; , - v, "'r' ,v 



I 



mm 



Fig. 305. — Quinnat salmon, young. 



known under an immense number of names, some of Indian, some of Rus- 

 sian, and others of American origin ; but none especially euphonious, 

 although most are more or less descriptive. Of these, but one needs to be 

 mentioned ; it is the quinnat, king, chinook, or tchawytcha (choweecha ) 

 salmon, which ranges from Monterey to Alaska, and is the predominating 

 form in the Columbia and Sacramento rivers. 



The young of the Pacific as of the Atlantic salmon are hatched in the 

 fresh water. At first they are of a very retiring disposition, hiding among 

 the pebbles at the bottom ; but with growth they acquire courage, and when 

 from four to six inches long they seek the sea. As soon as they pass from 

 the river their life is unknown until, when full-grown, they return probably 

 to the same river that gave them birth. What they do in the sea or where 

 they spend the time, are as deep mysteries as is that instinct which at last 

 forces them to return to the rivers. Still there is evidence which tends to 

 show that the deep sea is the place of their sojourn. At last the time 



