REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 83 



maxillaries and the tip of the lower jaw more and luure prolonged 

 both of the jaws becoming finally strongly and often extravagantly 

 hooked, so that either they shut by tlie side of each other like shears, 

 or else the mouth can not be closed. (2) The front teeth become very 

 long and canine-like, their growth proceeding very rapidly, until they 

 are often half an inch long. (3) The teeth on the vomer and tongue 

 often disappear. (4) The body grows more compressed and deeper 

 at the shoulders, so that a very distinct hump is formed; this is more 

 developed in the humpback salmon, but is found in all. (5) The 

 scales disappear, especially on the back, by the grow^th of spongy skin. 

 (6) The color changes from silvery to various shades of black and 

 red, or blotchy, according to the species. The blue-back turns rosy-red, 

 the head bright olive; the dog salmon a dull red witli blackish bars, 

 and the quinnat generally blackish. The distorted males are commonly 

 considered worthless, rejected by the canners and salmon-salters, but 

 preserved by the Indians. These changes are due solely to influences 

 connected with the growth of the reproductive organs. They are not 

 in any way due to the action of fresh water. They take place at about 

 the same time in the adult males of all species, whether in the ocean 

 or in the rivers. At the time of the spring runs all are symmetrical. 

 In the fall all males, of whatever species, are more or less distorted. 

 Among the dog salmon, which run only in the fall, the males are 

 hook-jawed and red-blotched when they first enter the Straits of Fuca 

 from the outside. The humpback, taken in salt water about Seattle, 

 have the same peculiarities. The male is slab-sided, hook-billed, and 

 distorted, and is rejected by the canners. No hook-jaw^ed females of 

 any species have been seen. 



On first entering a stream the salmon swim about as if playing. 

 They always head toward the current, and this appearance of playing 

 may be simply due to facing the moving tide. Afterwards they enter 

 the deepest parts of the stream and swim straight up, with few" inter- 

 ruptions. Their rate of travel at Sacramento is estimated by Stone at 

 about two miles per day; on the Columbia, at about three miles per day. 

 Those which enter the Columbia in the spring and ascend to the moun- 

 tain rivers of Idaho must go at a more rapid rate than this, as they 

 must make an average of ^nearly four miles per day. 



As already stated, the economic value of any species depends in great 

 part on its being a " spring salmon." It is not generally possible to 

 capture salmon of any species in large numbers until they have entered 

 the estuaries or rivers, and the spring salmon entered the large rivers 

 long before the growth of the organs of reproduction has reduced the 

 richness of the flesh. The fall salmon can not be taken in quantity 

 until their flesh has deteriorated; hence the dog salmon is practically 

 almost worthless except to the Indians, and the humpback salmon was 



