326 ZOOLOGY. 



Sir John Richardson, in the addenda to the fishes in F. B. A., acknowledges the receiiit of 

 several sjiecimcns of three different kinds of trout from P. W. Dease, esq., taken in New 

 Caledonia, (British Columbia.) One named sup'pai, he says, "resembles the young of an 

 anadromous salmon. The scales are thin, flexible, and bright; the body is marked chiefly 

 above the lateral line u'itli scattered crucial or crescentie black spots, and the dorsal and caudal 

 are tliickly dotted with oval blackish marks in rows." Tlie fins generally, Init the under ones 

 especially, are small, and the latter aj^pear to have been of a pale hue. * "•■" * * The 

 characters ascribed by Dr. Gairduer to the T. tsuptpitcJi of the Columbia agreeing well with this 

 fish, and the names being so similar, we may conclude that they are the same; and also that 

 they belong to the species named silvery- white salmon-troid by Lewis and Clark." If it wore 

 not that Gairdncr says distinctly that the fins and tail of the T. isuppitch are destitute of sjxJs, 

 I should think it very likely that the T. tsuppitch is the same as the siqipai, perhaps the same as 

 the silvery ■ichite sahnon-trmd of Lewis and Clark, which, it is not unlikely, is that now known 

 to the Oregon settlers as the "white salmon," although it may be the S. paucidens. There are, 

 however, differences which cannot readily be explained between Lewis and Clark's statements 

 concerning the size and period of "season" of their tvhite salmon-trout and Dr. Gairdner's 

 notes concerning the S. ^mucidcns. Lewis and Clark state that its weight is "few p>oimds." 

 Gairdner's S. jMucidens "has an average weight of three or four pounds." Lewis and Clark 

 say that their fish "is in excellent order tvhcn the salmon are out of season." Dr. Gairdner 

 remarks that the S. paucidens " is taken in com]) any tvith the S. Gairdneri" and "the quinnai," 

 (the common salmon of Lewis and Clark.) The icMte salmon of the settlers runs up the rivers 

 much later in the season than the spring salmon noted b}^ Dr. Gairdner, and, if my memory 

 serves me, chooses the same month as the 8. Scouleri ; in this respect agreeing with the *S'. 

 tsuppitch, which, according to Dr. Gairdner, ascends with the "ekewan," [S. Scouleri?) 



The salmon described by Girard in tlic General Report on Fishes, Pacific Railroad Reports, 

 vol. 10, page 312, as the Fario argyrcus, Grd., may, perhaps be the ^S*. paucidens. Rich. It is 

 aminspjotted fiih, r;'Je Plate LXX, Fig. 1.- — (Sec remarks beyond, under head of /Sa?moa>'(/2/re2<s,) 



3. SALMO ARGYREUS, Grd. 



Plate LXX. — Gen. Rep. Fishes. 



Stn. " SalTW argyrews.Gm." (ilss.) Pacific R. E. Kep. Gen. Kop. Fishes, 1858, p. 312. 



Fario argijreus, Gkd. Proc. A. N. Sc. Phil. VIII, 1S5C, 21S.— Ie. Pacific K. E. Rep. vol. VI, Part IV. p. 32. 



As the description of this species given by Dr. Girard seems based on tlie characters of 

 two young, piartially groivn fish, the specific characters thus deduced are probably mucli unlike 

 those of the adult in good condition. For this reason no specific distinctions are given in this 

 place; but, for the convenience of those interested in the subject, they are inserted in the 

 accompanying note. 



My own specimen, marked 580, Smithson. Cat. Fishes, was caught at the mouth of Nisqually 

 river, (emptying into Pugct Sound near Port Steilacoom,) December 1, 1856. In my note book 

 I find that its belly and sides were bright silvery; back, and top of head, silvery blue. Lateral 

 line strongly defined. It was called by the natives satsup. 



George Gibbs, esq., in a letter tome, says: "The safei/^j arrives at the mouth of the Puyallup 

 aliout the end of December, and remains until spring. Towards that season, when the streams 

 emptying into the sound are raised by the melting of the snow, the fish ascend them. This 

 - la a foot-note Richardson says : "In one specimen the spots on the fins are almost obsolete." 



