90 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
This species is the neatest in form and most symmetrical of the sal- 
mons. Its usual weight at maturity is about 7 pounds, the range 
being from 3 to 10 or 11 pounds. The largest example seen in Alaska 
during these investigations was taken in Chignik Bay, and weighed 10 
pounds 8.5 ounces. The flesh of this salmon is deep red and of good 
quality, though much less juicy than that of the Chinook; it is firmer 
than that of any other salmon, and lends itself readily to canning proc- 
esses. In the sea the fish is clear sky blue on the upper part of its 
body, silvery below, and without spots. After entering the rivers to 
spawn, the color changes to crimson, at first very bright, but soon 
becoming darker blood red and more or less blotched. The head, in 
marked contrast with the body, becomes a bright olive-green in color. 
In the males the back becomes somewhat humped and the jaws become 
extravagantly produced and hooked. 
In Alaska this species runs chiefly in July. It is said to run long 
distances up the Yukon and to the headwaters of the Columbia in the 
Sawtooth Mountains. It almost invariably spawns in small streams 
tributary to lakes, occasionally in the lakes themselves about the 
mouths of the tributary streams. It rarely, if ever, runs in any stream 
which has not somewhere in its course a lake with available spawning 
grounds in the stream or streams at its head. These streams are often 
very small, perhaps only a few feet across and a few inches deep, but 
the salmon may enter them in great numbers. The determining fac- 
tor is always the presence of a lake with suitable spawning beds above 
it, whether the lake be only a few rods from the sea, as at Boca de 
Quadra, or many hundreds of miles, as in the case of the Columbia. 
With the red salmon and the chinook of the usual size there are 
often found much smaller individuals. Among the red salmon these 
seem most abundant at Chignik Bay, where they are called ‘‘ Arctic 
salmon.” The small red salmon of Necker Bay, Baranof Island, are 
probably of the same nature. 
(3) The silver salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum), is called 
silversides or silver salmon in the Columbia, coho on Puget Sound 
and the Fraser River, and coho or silver salmon in Alaska. To the 
Russians it is known as the kisutch or bielaya ryba, which means white 
fish. The flesh of this species is less firm than that of the red salmon, 
and is rather pale, not possessing the deep-red hue of the latter; also, 
the scales fall off more readily when the fish is handled. In flavor 
the flesh is distinctly better, and only the pale color keeps it from 
ranking with the best of salmon. The silver salmon ascends the 
streams for short distances only, and when in salt water it seems to 
remain close inshore. The young can be taken with a seine along 
the shores in Alaska at almost any time, and seem to remain in the 
rivers longer than the young of the other species. The run occurs in 
