KEPOKT OF STATE BOAKU OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 85 



The output of the salmon fishery of the Pacific Coast amounts to 

 about fifteen millions per year, that of Alaska constituting seven or 

 nine millions of this amount. Of this amount the red salmon consti- 

 tutes somewhat more than half, tlie quinnat al)0ut four fifths of the 

 rest. 



In almost all salmon streams there is evidence of considerable dimi- 

 nution in numbers, although the evidence is sometimes conflicting. In 

 Alaska this has been due to the vicious custom, now done away with, 

 of barricading the streams so that the fish could not reach the spawn- 

 ing grounds, but might be all taken with the net. In the Columbia 

 River the reduction in numbers is mainly due to stationary traps and 

 salmon-wheels, which leave the first relatively little chance to reach 

 the spawning grounds. In years of high water doubtless many salmon 

 run in the spring which might have otherwise waited until fall. 



The key to the situation lies in the artificial propagation of salmon 

 by means of well-ordered hatcheries. By this means the fisheries of 

 the Sacramento have been fully restored, those of the Columbia approxi- 

 mately maintained, and a hopeful beginning has been made in hatch- 

 ing red salmon in Alaska. 



SALMO, THE TROUT, AND ATLANTIC SALMON. 



The genus Salvia comprises those forms of salmon which have been 

 longest known. As in related genera, the mouth is large, and the jaws, 

 palatines, and tongue are armed with strong teeth. The vomer is flat, 

 its shaft not depressed below the level of the head or chevron (the 

 anterior end). There are a few teeth on the chevron; and behind it, 

 on the shaft, there is either a double series of teeth or an irregular 

 single series. These teeth in the true salmon disappear with age, but 

 in the others (the black-spotted trout) they are persistent. The scales 

 are silvery and moderate or small in size. There are 9 to 11 developed 

 rays in the anal fin. The caudal fin is truncate, or variously concave 

 or forked. There are usually 40 to 70 pyloric coeca, 11 or 12 branchi- 

 ostegals, and about 20 (8+12) gill-rakers. The sexual peculiarities 

 are in general less marked than in Oncorhynchus; they are also greater 

 in the anadromous species than in those which inhabit fresh waters. 

 In general, the male in the breeding season is redder, its jaws are 

 prolonged, the front teeth enlarged, the lower jaw turned upward at 

 the end, and the upper jaw notched, or sometimes even perforated, by 

 the tip of the lower. All the species of Salmo (like those of Oncorhyn- 

 chus) are more or less spotted with black. Unlike the species of 

 Oncorhynchus, the species of Sahno feed more or less while in fresh 

 water, and the individuals for the most part do not die after spawn- 

 ing, although many old males do thus perish. 



