82 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



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

 do not feed; and when thej' 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 this is apparently solely out 

 of annoyance, snapping at the meddling line. 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 Jul}' to December, and takes 

 place usualh' as soon as the temperature of the Avater falls to 54°. The 

 manner of spawning is probably similar for all the species. In the 

 (|uinnat the fishes pair off; 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, and the female deposits her eggs 

 in it. They then float down the stream tail foremost, the only fashion 

 in which salmon descend to the sea. As already stated, in the head- 

 waters of the large streams, unquestionably, all die; it is the belief of 

 the writer that none ever survive. The young hatch in sixty days, and 

 most of them return to the ocean during the high water of the spring. 

 They enter the river as adults at the age of about four years. 



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

 according to the species, and with the mouth about equally symmet- 

 rical in both sexes. As the spawning season approaches the female 

 loses her silvery color, becomes more slimy, the scales on the back 

 partly sink into the skin, and the flesh changes from salmon-red and 

 becomes variously paler, from the loss of oil; the degree of paleness 

 varying much with individuals and with 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 with pale flesh are some- 

 times taken in spring, and an increasing number from July on. In 

 the Eraser River the fall run of the quinnat is nearly worthless for 

 canning purposes, because so many are "' white-meated." In the spring 

 very few are "white-meated"; but the number increases toward fall, 

 when there is every variation, some having red streaks running through 

 them, others being red toward the head and pale toward the tail. The 

 red and pale ones can not 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 little market for canned salmon not of the con- 

 ventional orange-color. 



As the season advances the difference between the males and females 

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

 of the milt, as is shown by dissection. The males have (1) the pre- 



