52 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



extreme limit is not known. This is a distance of six to eight hundred 

 miles. At these great distances, when the fish have reached the spawn- 

 ing grounds, besides the usual changes of the breeding season, their 

 bodies are covered Avith bruises, on which patches of white fungus 

 develop. The fins become mutilated, their eyes are often injured or 

 destroyed, parasitic worms gather in their gills, they become extremely 

 emaciated, their flesh becomes white from the loss of oil, and as soon as 

 the spawning act is accomplished, and sometimes before, all of them die. 

 The ascent of the Cascades and the Dalles j^robably causes the injury 

 or death of a great manv salmon. 



When the salmon enter the river they refuse to take bait, and their 

 stomachs are always found empty and contracted. In the rivers they 

 do not feed, and when they reach the spawning grounds their stomachs, 

 pyloric coeca and all, are said to be no larger than one's finger. They 

 will sometimes take the fly, or a hook baited with salmon roe, in the 

 clear waters of the upper tributaries, but there is no evidence known to 

 us that they feed when there. Only the Quinnat and Blue-back (there 

 called Red-fish) have been found at any great distance from the sea, and 

 these (as adult fishes) only in late summer and fall. 



The spawning season is probably about the same for all the species. 

 It varies for each of the different rivers, and for different parts of the 

 same river. It doubtless extends from July to December. The manner 

 of spawning is probably similar for all the species, but we have no data 

 for any except the Quinnat. In this species the fishes pair ofi'; the male, 

 with tail and snout, excavates a broad, shallow " nest " in the gravelly 

 bed of the stream, in rapid water, at a depth of one to four feet; the 

 female deposits her eggs in it, and, after the exclusion of the milt, they 

 cover them with stones and gravel. They then float down the stream 

 tail foremost. As already stated, a great majority of them die. In the 

 headwaters of the large streams, unquestionably all die; in the small 

 streams, and near the sea, an unknown percentage probably survive. 

 The young hatch in about sixty days, and most of them return to the 

 ocean during the high water of the spring. 



The salmon of all kinds, in the spring, are silvery, spotted or not, 

 according to the species, and with the mouth about equally symmetrical 

 in both sexes. As the spaAvning season approaches, the female loses her 

 silver}^ color, becomes more slimy, the scales on the back partly sink into 

 the skin, and the flesh changes from salmon-red and becomes A^ariously 

 paler from the loss of oil, the degree of paleness varying much with 

 individuals and Avith inhabitants of different rivers. In the Sacramento 

 the flesh of the Quinnat, in either spring or fall, is rarely pale. In the 

 Columbia a few Avith pale flesh are sometimes taken in the spring, and 

 a good many in the fall. In Fraser River the fall run of the Quinnat 

 is nearly AA^orthless for canning purposes, because so many are " Avhite- 

 meated." In the spring very few are " white-meated," but the number 

 increases toAvards fall, Avhen there is every variation, some having red 

 streaks running through them, others being red toAvard the head and 

 pale toward the tail. The red and pale ones cannot be distinguished 

 externally, and the color is dependent on neither age nor sex. There is 

 said to be no difference in the taste, but there is no market for canned 

 salmon not of the conventional orange color. 



As the season advances, the difference betAveen the males and females 

 becomes more and more marked, and keeps pace Avith the development 



