FISHES. 821 



Sound. At this latter place in 187S aud 1879 tbey first appeared ou the 12th, aud ran until the 

 16th. During the run they keep close to the shore, so that a person can stand ou the beach aud 

 spear them as they pass, aud many are caught in seines by the Eskimo. Near Cape Vancouver many 

 are caught in gill-nets and dipnets at this season. During the run schools of Belugas or White 

 "Whales follow along shore aud feast upon them. In 1881 the herrings did not appear at Saint 

 Michaels until June I.'j, and on the 19th the run was over. At this time these fish form a contin- 

 uous line along the beach, passing from south to north in unbroken succession, spawning ou the 

 sea-weeds and rocks from above low-tide mark to a fathom below it. They enter all the inner 

 bays and swarm about every reef and rocky point. 



The water boils with them along shore as they struggle about in a dense mass among the short 

 sea-weed in spawning, and they can be easily caught in one's bauds. The females move slowly 

 amoug the weeds and press in the midst of them, depositing their eggs, which adhere to whatever 

 they come in contact with by means of a gummy secretion, with which they are coated. Thrusting 

 my hand under water for a half miuute was sufBcient for it to be covered with eggs. 



Duriug all of the spawning time the milt of the males discolors the water to an opaque dirty 

 milky hue for from 2 to 4 fathoms from shore. 



The temperature of the water in the midst of the spawning fish was 44°. 2. A large portion 

 of the eggs deposited during high tide were exposed to the sun aud air at ebb so that they dried, 

 and the following high tide washed them off the weeds and they were lost. The amount thus 

 destroyed would equal at least 25 per cent, of the eggs deposited. 



In Sauer's account of the Billings Expedition, at the end of last century, he states that ou 

 June 7, at the harbor of Saints Peter and Paul, in Kamchatka, he saw the herrings spawning on 

 sea-weeds along shore, so that at ebb tide a portion of them were es))osed. He adds further that 

 the herrings return to that coast in fall, but that the spring fish are largest. 



It may be noted here that the water of Xorton Sound, where I saw these fish spawning, is 

 very far from being as salty as the sea water on the coast of Kamchatka, owing to the proximity 

 of the Sound to the Yukon mouth, from which it appears that the herrings of this region are 

 somewhat indifferent as to the quality of the water on their spawning beds. 



49. Catostomus catostomus Forster. Pipe Fish (Tropica of Russians). 



29906. (250-252.) Nulato, March, 1881. 

 32859. (49.) Nulato, January, 1878. 



Description of a specimen which was not kept. Length, 19 luches, dorsal 10; anal 7; scales, 17, 

 115, 14. Color, dull plumbeous on back and sides, fading gradually into white on the lower surface. 

 Exteudiug along the lateral line is a band of light pink or rose color, gradually fading ou the 

 posterior half. Iris golden. Head, above and on sides, bluish purple. Xose much prolonged. 

 Lips very prominently papillated. A series of small papillae extend from under the eye out on the 

 snout on either side. Proportions : Head a trifle over 4 times in entire length. Eye, 8^ in head, 

 3^ in interorbital space. Depth of head 1^ in length of same. Height of dorsal a little more than 

 base and 1§ in length of head. Pectoral, If in head. Ventral, If in head. Anal, IJ in head. 

 Caudal, 1^ in head. Caudal peduncle, width 3 in head. Depth of body, IJ in head. From eye 

 to end of snout 2 in head. 



The contour of head reminds one strikingly of a Sturgeon. 



32888. (101-106.) Audraevsky, Yukou River, wia er, 1877-78. 

 32959. (314, 316. ) Audraevsky, Yukou River, sr .all creek. 

 32984. juv. Audraevsky, Yukon Eiver, winter, 1877-78. 



The Eussiau name is derived from the peculiar shape of the head. 



This is an abundant species throughout iSTorthern Alaska in all the streams, so far as I could 

 learn. Specimens were brought me from the Yukon at various points and from other streams, and 

 the first of September, 1881, I saw quite a number of them taken in a seine by the Eskimo from 

 the brackish estuaries of streams tlowiug into Kotzebue Sound. 

 S. Mis. 156 41 



