THE PACIFIC SALMONS 



DESCRIPTION AND NATURAL HISTORY 

 OF THE SPECIES 



THE salmons of the Pacific coast constitute a 

 well-marked group of wide distribution, extraor- 

 dinary abundance, and great economic impor- 

 tance. No other river fishes in the world support 

 such extensive fisheries, and contribute so largely 

 to the food supply of man ; beside them all other 

 salmon are comparatively insignificant. 



The genus Oncorhynchus (signifying hooked 

 snout), to which the Pacific salmons belong and 

 which is peculiar to the North Pacific Ocean, is 

 closely related to the genus Salmo, the differences 

 appealing rather to the ichthyologist than to the 

 fisherman or layman. The features separating 

 the two genera consist chiefly in an increased 

 number of anal rays, branchiostegals, gill-rakers, 

 and pyloric caeca in the western fish. The five 

 species of Oncorhynchus differ amoflg themselves 

 in size, color, form, squamation, pyloric append- 



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