320 JSTATCTEAL HISTOEY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



darker as the line Is approached. Above lateral Hue the color changes to a bright metallic steel 

 blae, becoming very intense as the median dorsal line is approached. Along the dorsal line, how- 

 ever, the color is a dull bluish-olive, produced by a heavy olive shade over the blue. Top of head 

 dark olive, fading into silvery on sides, which are finely and thickly sprinkled with dark dots. 

 Below white. Iris very pale golden-yellow. 



? 32847. (19.) Norton Sound, July 20, 1«77. 



Slender Salmon. Male.— Length, 25 inches ; depth, 5 inches. 



Back olive green, with a silvery luster on each scale. The olive fades away below the lateral 

 line, but is invaded from below by irregular blotches of light silvery or of a delicate rosy pink, 

 which extends from the abdominal region. Top and sides of head tinted olive green, fading as on 

 body. A faint coppery tint to the silvery on opercular bones. The lower surface is made darker 

 by the numerous fine dots. Dorsals, pectorals, and caudal dull clayey olive. Ventrals olive with 

 a light si)ot on tip. Anal bluish-olive, with similar light spot on tip. 



32897. Locality not stated, 



47. Oncoehynchus gorbuscha (Walb.). Humi^-backed Salmon {Gorbusha of Jlussian; 

 Esk. TuMi-tuk). 



(224.) Saint Michaela, July 27, 1830. 



Dorsal surface dull olive bluish, with a tinge of purple along side on lateral line. Upper 

 fins and tail uniform bluish olive. The bluish of the upper surface becomes rapidly replaced 

 by white below the lateral line, but the whole side has a dingy bluish-white appearance, though 

 each scale is silvery white. Top of head greenish olive; sides of same purplish olive; beneath 

 pure white. Pectoral fins bluish black, with white base close to body. Ventrals : Anterior half 

 of upper surface a little lighter than pectorals, the rest of this fin dingy white. The dorsal sur- 

 face above lateral line, from occiput to tail, including dorsal fin, and the entire tail irregu- 

 larly but profusely marked with oblong black spots at intervals of about one-fourth to one-third 

 of an inch. The spots on the back have their greatest diameter at right angles to the lateral line. 

 On the tail the spots are rather more numerous, are rounder, and have their longest axis parallel 

 to the lateral line. The spots on the back are about twice as long as wide. Iris pale yellow. 



(In a speciinen fresh from water the whole upper half with fins is strongly shaded with a 

 purplish or reddish tint.) 



29891. (2i6. ) Saint Michaels, July 29, 1880. 

 29897. (222.) Saint Michaels, July 24, 1880. 



Young male. This species is rather uncommon here but very numerous at this season at 

 Unalakleet. 



The Gorhuslca are first taken about the middle of June along the coast of Bering Sea, and are 

 rather numerous until the end of July, with more or less common stragglers until late in fall. They 

 run at the same time and in about equal numbers in the rivers well into the interior. The 

 Gorhuska is less regular in its appearance than the other species of small salmon in the Yukon. 

 Some years only a few will be taken, and again they will run in such excessive numbers in the 

 Lower Yukon that the wicker fish-traps must be emptied several times a day. The flesh of this 

 species dries orange yellow. This is the least palatable of the salmon, being dry and tasteless. 



48. Clupea mieabilis Girard. Herring (Esk. T-M- thlu-uldi-pHk). 



29887. (295-302.) Saint Michaels, June 16, 1881. 

 Herrings from S])awning bed on reef. 



32872. (53.) Saint Michaels, spring, 1877. 



On June 9, 1877, I saw a large school of herrings in Unalaska Harbor, and on the 10th of the 

 same month and year they were noted for the first time that season at Saint Michaels, in Norton 



