Aethue. — Notes on some Specimens of migratory Salmonidse. 187 



of the seed salmon to the sea after depositing the spawn, I am incHned to 

 the opinion of Mr. Stone, so far as the greater part of the female fish are 

 concerned. I think very few of these, but many, though not all of the males, 

 return. I should judge that five per cent, of females and twenty per cent, 

 of males might be an approximation. I express this opinion diffidently. * 



* * * The female salmon seldom or never spawns but once.' "* 



'' Fi'aser River Salmon: The general opinion exists that these salmon 

 die after spawning, prior to their return to the sea. My convictions are 

 that this opinion, although strongly defended, is entirely an erroneous one, 

 not supported by sufficient data or proof to establish its correctness. I am 

 free to admit that a large number of salmon never return to the sea, and 

 indeed the immense number found dead and in a dying condition in so 

 many streams, is an abundant evidence of this fact ; but I contend that this 

 circumstance is simply and wholly the result of natural causes, and not 

 owing in the slightest degree to any inability to return to salt water. * 



* * * Salmo quinnat has never been seen in the Fraser, nor a suck-eye in 

 the Columbia. Some varieties spawn each year, others every alternate 

 one."f 



Although the two latter quotations are from articles written in defence 

 of Californian salmon, the S. quinnat included, they bear out the fact, so 

 graphically stated by Mr. Lord, as to the dreadful and loathsome mortality 

 among the spawning fish ; there can be no doubt, therefore, that the S. 

 quinnat is a most undesirable fish for our New Zealand rivers, and particu- 

 larly for such rivers as are stocked with trout. The whole article in 

 " Forest and Stream" from which I have taken the above extract, loses 

 much of its interest and value from the loose nature of some of its state- 

 ments. For example, the first sentence quoted above, is a contradiction in 

 terms, and the description given of the death of the salmon through ex- 

 haustion, shows by the writer's own words, a very decided lack of " ability 

 to return to salt water " at all ! The " suck-eye " mentioned, is I believe 

 the S. pauciclens of Giinther and Lord. Both Mr. Lord and Dr. Comrie 

 describe the S. quinnat as an inhabitant of the Fraser river, and Mr. Lord, 

 together with Dr. Giinther, reports S. pauciclens as going up the Columbia 

 river, so that, so far as I can find, the balance of evidence on these points 

 is against the writers in " Forest and Stream," 



The 8. pauciclens (?) has been so named by me because I cannot find 

 any other described species to agree so well with the marks of this specimen. 

 At the same time it differs from the fish noticed by Dr. Giinther and Mr. 

 Lord, in that its back is not straight but highly arched, and it is greater in 



* New Zealand Parliamentary papers, Californian salmon and whitefish ova, 1878, 

 t " Forest and Stream," New York, 17th June, 1880 



