50 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



above, and with a few faint black spots on the upper parts only. In 

 the fall the males are mostly of a dirty red. 



The Dog salmon {Oncorhyncltus keta) reaches an average weight of 

 about 12 pounds. It has about 14 anal rays, 14 branchiostegals, 24 

 (9+15) gill-rakers, and 140 to 185 pyloric coeca. There are about 150 

 scales in the lateral line. In spring it is dirty silvery, immaculate, or 

 sprinkled with small black specks, the fins dusky. In the fall the male 

 is brick-red or blackish, and its jaws are greatly distorted. 



The Humpback salmon {Oncorhynehus gorbuscha) is the smallest of 

 the species, weighing from 3 to 6 pounds. It has usually 15 anal rays, 

 12 branchiostegals, 28 (13-(-15) gill-rakers, and about 180 pyloric coeca. 

 Its scales are much smaller than in any other salmon, there being 180 

 to 240 in the lateral line. In color it is bluish above, silvery below, the 

 posterior and upper parts with many round black spots. The males in 

 the fall are red,. and are more extravagantly distorted than in any other 

 in the Salmonidse. 



Of these species the Blue-back predominates in Fraser River and in 

 the Yukon River, the Silver salmon in Puget Sound, the Quinnat in the 

 Columbia and the Sacramento, and the Silver salmon in most of the 

 streams along the coast. All the species have been seen by us in the 

 Columbia and in Fraser River; all but the Blue-back in the Sacramento 

 and in waters tributary to Puget Sound. Only the King salmon has 

 been noticed south of San Francisco. Its range has been traced as far 

 as Ventura River. Of these species, the King salmon and Blue-back 

 salmon hal)itually " run " in the spring, the others in the fall. The 

 usual order of running in the rivers is as folio w^s: nerka, tschawytscha, 

 kisutch, gorbuscha, keta. 



The economic value of the spring-running salmon is far greater than 

 that of the other species, because they can be captured in numbers when 

 at their best, while the others are usually taken only after deterioration. 

 To this fact the worthlessness of Oncorhynehus keta, as compared with 

 the other species, is probably wholly due. 



The habits of the salmon in the ocean are not easily studied. King 

 salmon and Silver salmon of all sizes are taken with the seine at almost 

 any season in Puget Sound. This would indicate that these species do 

 not go far from the shore. The King salmon takes the hook freely in 

 Monterey Bay, both near the shore and at a distance of six to eight 

 miles out. We have reason to believe that these two species do not 

 necessarily seek great depths, but probably remain not very far from 

 the mouth of the rivers in which they were spawned. The Blue-back 

 and the Dog salmon probably seek deeper water, as the former is seldom 

 or never taken with the seine in the ocean, and the latter is known to 

 enter the Strait of Fuca at the spawning season, therefore coming in 

 from the open sea. The great majority of the King salmon, and nearly 

 all the Blue-back salmon, enter the rivers in the spring. The run of 

 both begins generally at the last of March; it lasts, with various modi- 

 fications and interruptions, until the actual spawning season in Novem- 

 ber, the time of running and the proportionate amount in each of the 

 subordinate runs varying with each different river. In general, the 

 runs are slack in the summer and increase with the first high water of 

 autumn. By the last of August only straggling Blue-backs can be found 

 in the lower course of any stream; but both in the Columbia and in the 

 Sacramento the Quinnat runs in considerable numbers, at least till 



