The Dog Salmon 



and is the smallest of the genus. It is found on the Pacific Coast 

 and ascending the rivers of America and Asia from California and 

 Japan northward. 



In the rivers of Alaska it appears every year in great abundance; 

 in Puget Sound there seems to be a periodicity in its movements, the 

 runs of the alternate, odd years (1887, 1889, etc.) being much larger 

 than in the even years. In the Sacramento River it occurs each year 

 but in very limited numbers and is there known as the lost salmon. 

 Among other names applied to this species are haddo, holia, and dog 

 salmon of Alaska, though it is not the real dog salmon. 



Branchiostegals n or 12; gillrakers 13+15; A. 15; D. n; 

 scales 210 to 240, about 170 in the lateral line; pyloric coeca very 

 slender, about 180. Body rather slender, in the female plump and 

 symmetrical, in the fall males very thin and compressed, with the fleshy 

 dorsal hump much developed, the jaws greatly elongated, strongly 

 hooked, and with extravagant canines in front, ventral appendage 

 half as long as the fin. Colour, bluish, sides silvery; back posteriorly, 

 adipose fin, and tail with numerous black spots, those of the 

 caudal fin oblong in form and especially large; fall males red, more 

 or less blotched with brownish. This species may be known at once 

 by the very small scales and the coarse, oblong spots on the tail. 

 In Japan is a very similar species, Oncorhynchus masou Brevoort, 

 with equally small scales, but the tail unspotted. 



The humpback salmon has not usually been regarded as 

 possessing any food-value, but in some of the salmon canneries 

 it is now canned and shipped East and South, where it is put upon 

 the market under fictitious labels and retailed as one of the cheaper 

 grades of salmon. It is often called " negro salmon "at the can- 

 neries, but when prepared, the name "pink salmon" is in common 

 use, as distinguished from the " red salmon," Oncorhynchus nerka. 



The dog salmon reaches a weight of 10 to 12 pounds. It 

 is found usually in great abundance from the Sacramento north- 

 ward to Kamchatka and Bering Straits, ascending all suitable 

 streams in the fall, and spawning at no great distance from the 



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