PACIFIC COAST FISHES. 



363 



lowish on the belly ; inferior fins unicolor ; head above, bluish- 

 grey ; sides, bluish-grey." — Girard. See U. S. Fish Commis^ 

 sioners' Report on Fresh Water Fishes, 1872 and 1873. Page 105, 

 et seq. 



The scales are of moderate development and conspicuously 

 larger on the area constituting the flanks, and which is traversed 

 by the lateral line. They are sub-ovoid in shape, slightly narrower 

 anteriorly than posteriorly, upon which margin the concentric 

 stria, or channel-like lines are obliterated. Those of the lateral 

 line are more irregular in their outline, and proportionally much 

 larger than those on the abdominal region, where they are slightly 

 larger than on the dorsal region. 



This species inhabits " the Pacific coast Irom San Francisco 

 northward, probably to Behring Straits, entering the larger rivers 

 of the coast annually in vast shoals. We are told that in the Sa- 

 cramento and San Joaquin Rivers, they are most abundant, ascend- 

 ing the latter in July and August to spawn, when they travel a. 

 hundred and fifty miles through the hottest valley in California to 

 reach their breeding grounds, where the temperature of the air and 

 water reach astonishing figures — where often at noon it is rarely 

 less than 80° Fahrenheit, and where the average temperature of 

 the water at the bottom of the rivers is 79°, and at the surface 80°." 

 These facts we learn from the Report of the California Fish Com- 

 missioners; for the years of 1874 and 1875. They aver that those 

 salmon which ascend the San Joaquin appear to be of the same 

 variety as those of the Sacramento, but average smaller in size. 

 That they ascend this river when the temperature is so high, ex- 

 plodes entirely the theory formed by naturalists, that salmon can 

 not live below the 43d parallel in the streams of our country. This 

 fact renders it probable, as the California Commissioners affirm 

 that the Pacific salmon will yet be planted in all the waters of the 

 Southern States that take their rise in the mountainous regions of 

 that portion of the Union. The enterprising and intelligent Commis- 

 sioners of Fisheries of California, are exploding each year anti- 

 quated notions regarding the salmon. If the salmon of the San 

 Joaquin ascend to the sources of that river to spawn, they go be- 

 low the 37th parallel, many degrees below where naturalists have 

 declared it to be impossible for them to exist. 



