FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 73 

known in the Sacramento, Columbia, Nushagak, Yukon and some other 
ereat rivers. Through the efforts of the United States Fish Commission 
-it has been widely distributed in the East and beyond seas; but with 
comparatively poor results, as the species does not appear suitable for 
acclimation, or the proper method of introduction has not yet been dis- 
covered. In Pennsylvania the fry have been somewhat extensively 
planted, but without success. In certain ponds they have been reared 
to maturity, but were dwarfed in size. Ten thousand fry were placed in 
James Duffy’s pond at Marietta, in the autumn of 1878. On November 
12, 1880, 5,500 of eight to ten inches long were left alive and planted in 
the Susquehanna. 
Size.—This is the largest species of Oncorhynchus, occasionally reaching 
a weight of one hundred pounds. The average weight, however, on the 
Columbia river is about twenty-two and one-half pounds, and on the Sac- 
ramento sixteen. A greater proportion of large individuals is taken in 
Alaska than in any other region and particularly in the Yukon, Nushagak, 
and some rivers of Cook’s inlet. It is believed that the species will attain 
a weight of twenty pounds when four years old. The very large salmon 
of this kind must have successfully passed more than one spawning sea- 
son, or else we must admit a more rapid rate of growth than appears 
possible. The length of an individual weighing sixty pounds was nearly 
four feet; the average length of the adults is three feet. 
Habits—Like other species of salmon the quinnat attaims its prin- 
cipal growth at sea and enters the rivers only for the purpose of spawn- 
ing. The young leave the streams, it is believed, at the age of six or 
seven months when they have reached a length of four to six inches. 
What their history in the ocean is no one can tell as they are not seen 
until their return for the purpose of reproduction. When the sea-run 
fish approach the shores they come in immense schools which break up 
when they have reached within a mile and a half of the land. They 
play around in the bays near the mouths of rivers for a short time before 
beginning the ascent, and it is known that they feed upon herring, capelin, 
and sand launce at such times. In fresh water they take no food The 
quinnet makes very long journeys towards the headwaters of streams, 
in some rivers traveling upward of one thousand miles from the sea. 
Spawning takes place in little tributaries of the rivers. It is now gen- 
erally believed that salmon which travel so great a distance all die after 
spawning. The want of food, the rough usage undergone in the ascent 
of the obstructed waters, and the fatigue incident to the process of 
spawning, combine to emaciate the fish; the injuries received from sharp 
rocks cause fractures of the skin, and these are speedily attacked by the 
dreaded salmon fungus, Saprolegnia, so that the last days of the once 
beautiful salmon are pitiful to look upon. The quinnat build a nest in 
clear, shoal water on gravelly bottom, scooping out the gravel with their 
noses and leveling it with their tails, making a circular depression a few 
