80 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISPIOXERS. 



and at a distance of six to eight miles out. We have reason to beheve 

 that these two species do not necessarily seek great depths, but proba- 

 bly remain not very far from the mouth of the rivers in which they 

 Avere spawned. The blue-back or red salmon certainly seeks deeper 

 water, as it is seldom or never taken with the seine along shore, and it 

 is known to enter the Straits of Fuca in July, just before the running 

 season, therefore coming in from the open sea. The great majority of 

 the quinnat salmon, and probably all the blue-back salmon, enter the 

 rivers in the spring. The run of the quinnat begins generally at the 

 last of March; it lasts, witli various modifications and interruptions, 

 until the actual spawning season in November, the greatest runs being 

 in early June in Alaska, in July in the Columbia. The run begins earli- 

 est in the northernmost rivers, and in the longest streams, 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 (inly 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 October. In the 

 Sacramento the run is greatest in the fall, and more run in the sum- 

 mer than in spring. In the Sacramento and the smaller rivers south- 

 ward there is a winter run, beginning in December. The spring c|uinnat 

 salmon ascends only those rivers which are fed by the melting snows 

 from the mountains and which have sufficient volume to send their 

 waters well out to sea. Those salmon wliirli run in the spring are 

 chiefly adults (supposed to be at least three years old). Their milt and 

 spawn are no more developed than at the same time in others of the 

 same species which have not yet entered the rivers. It would appear 

 that the contact with cold fresh water, when in the ocean, in some 

 way causes them to run toward it, and to run before there is any 

 special influence to that end exerted by the development of the organs of 

 generation. High water on any of these rivers in the spring is alwaj's 

 followed by an increased run nf salmon. The salmon-canners think — 

 and this is probably true — that salmon which would not have run till 

 later are brought up by the contact with the cold water. The cause 

 of this effect of cold fresh water is not understood. We may call it 

 an instinct of the salmon, which is another way of expressing our 

 ignorance. In general, it seems to be true that in those rivers and 

 during those years when the spring rtm is greatest the fall run is least 

 to be depended on. 



The blue-back salmon runs chiefly in .July and early August, begin- 

 ning in late June in the Chilcoot River, where some were found actually 

 spawning July 15 ; beginning after the middleof July in the Fraser River. 

 . As the season advances, smaller and younger salmon of these species 



