HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC SALMON. 607 



found in fresh water at most seasons of the year. They weiah, on 

 an average, at different places from 8 to 15 lbs., with a maximum 

 of about 45 lbs. 



The scales, of which I have specimens from several fish, but 

 from only two that had been weighed and measured, show that 

 life in fresh water before the first migration to the sea may be of 

 considerable duration. In this species, as in the case of our own 

 salmon, no doubt is possible as to the limits of the part of the 

 scale formed in fresh water. From examination of a large 

 number of scales from my two measured fish, I judge them to be 

 about 7 inches long when they enter the sea. As spawning takes 

 place in the spring, the number of lines on the scale at the end of 

 the first winter is naturally very small. The scale illustrated in 

 text-fig. 118 shows five up to the point A, and that seems the 

 usual number, but the first band is not always visible on all the 

 scales, which is not to be wondered at seeing how minute they 

 are, -^ inch long at the most, at that time. 



A second winter in fresh water is shown in text-fig. 118 by the 

 band B, and a third by the band C. Outside of it are two or 

 three more lines added to the parr scale in the fish's fourth 

 year, before it entered the sea. All the Steelhend scales which I 

 possess show similar lines and bands, so I suppose one may take it 

 that these fish remain in fresh Avater until well on in their fourth 

 spring, counting that in which they were spawned as one. They 

 would then be just three years old. 



When they get to the sea they grow very rapidly. The first 

 band completed in the sea within a year of migi'ation shows my 

 two measured fish to liave been then already from 19^ to 20| inches 

 long (see text-fig. 118, E), and the second winter band shows a 

 length of from 29 to 304 inches (text-fig. 118, F), but I am not 

 sure that I have identified this band correctly on the scale 

 illustrated. These two fish were both caught near the mouth of 

 the Fraser River in the autumn of 1912, when they measured 

 31f and 33 inches respectively and weighed 12|^ and 13 lbs., 

 the shorter and thicker fish being a female. They had then done 

 a considerable amount of feeding in their sixth year. 



This completes for the present my review of the salmon of the 

 Pacific Coast of North Amei'ica. 



It must always be borne in mind that my observations have 

 been made on the scales of fish from the Fraser River district 

 alone, and that readings from the scales of salmon caught else- 

 where might show considei-able differences. Some divergence is 

 almost certain in the duration of freshwater life, for observations 

 of the scales of the true salmon {Scdmo solar) have shown that 

 the further north one goes the longer does the young salmon 

 remain in fresh water, and it is not at all unlikely that the 

 Pacific salmon are influenced in the same way l^y climatic 

 conditions. 



