REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 89 
are well defined, and differ widely in habit and in commercial value, a 
matter of vital importance to an understanding of the salmon question. 
(1) The chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tschawytscha (Walbaum), is 
called king salmon or spring salmon in Alaska; spring or chinook sal- 
mon on Fraser River and Puget Sound; chinook, quinnat, or Colum- 
bia River salmon on the Columbia; and Sacramento River salmon in 
California. It is called tyee salmon where the Chinook jargon is 
spoken, and tchavitche among the Russians. It reaches a larger size 
than any other species, the average weight of those caught in the com. 
mercial fisheries being about 22 pounds, while examples weighing 40 
to 60 pounds are not rare, and occasionally individuals have been taken 
which had reached the enormous weight of 80 to 100 pounds. 
In quality of flesh the chinook salmon is superior to any other. 
Its flesh is red, rich, tender, and deliciously flavored, becoming paler 
in color, however, and less rich in flavor as the spawning season 
approaches. This salmon may readily be distinguished by its large 
size, the presence of round, black spots on back and tail, 15 to 19 
branchiostegals, and 18 or 19 raysin the anal fin. As the breeding 
season approaches, the colors become duller and the sides blotched 
with dull red. 
The chinook salmon runs in the large rivers, especially those having 
glacial or snow-fed tributaries. Its chief run is in May and June in 
the north, in June, July, and later in the Columbia, and still later in 
the Sacramento. In the Columbia and Sacramento there is a more or 
less distinct run in September. In northern Alaska the principal run 
isin May; in Bristol! Bay, about the middle of June. This salmon 
goes to the very headwaters of the streams it inhabits, in the Colum- 
bia reaching the Sawtooth Mountains in central ihe and the head- 
waters of other streams furnishing suitable spawning grounds. In 
the Yukon some individuals are said each year to ascend to Caribou 
Crossing on Lake Bennett, a distance of 2,250 miles from the sea. 
In Alaska, the fish runs in appreciable numbers in the Stikine, Taku, 
Chilkat, Alsek, Kussilof, Copper, Knik, Nushagak, Yukon, and 
Kowak rivers. It is not abundant in southeast Alaska, though small 
schools are sometimes seen in pursuit of schools of herring, and occa- 
sional individuals may be taken any month in the year at certain 
places, particularly in Chatham Strait. It is not believed that the 
species goes far out to sea, or for any great distance from the mouth 
of the stream in which it was spawned. 
(2) The red salmon, or red-fish of Alaska, Oncorhynchus nerka (Wal- 
baum), is known in the Columbia River as blueback salmon, and on 
the Fraser River and in Puget Sound as the sockeye, a Chinook word 
originally spelled sukkegh. By the Russians it is called Arasnaya ryba, 
which means redfish. 
