FISHES. 153 



spring the form is 2:)lumply rounded, and the color is a clear bright blue above, silvery 

 below, and everywhere immaculate. Young fishes often show a few round black spots, 

 which disappear when they enter the sea. Fall specimens in the lakes are bright red 

 in color, hook-nosed and slab-sided, and bear little resemblance to the sjn-ing run. 

 Young spawning male grilse are also peculiar in appearance, and were for a time con- 

 sidered as forming a distinct "genus" under the name of " Hypsifario hennerlyiP 



The silver salmon {OncorliyncJms kisiitch) reaches a weight of 3 to 8 pounds. It 

 has 13 developed rays in the anal, 13 branchiostegals, 23 (10+13) gill rakers, and 45 to 

 80 pyloric cosca. There are about 127 scales in the lateral line. In color it is silvery 

 in spring, greenish above, and with a few faint black spots on the upper parts only. In 

 the fall the males are mostly of a dirty red. 



The dog salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) reaches an average weight of about 12 

 pounds. It has about 14 anal rays, 14 branchiostegals, 24 (9+15) gill rakers, and 140 

 to 185 pyloric coeca. There are about 150 scales in the lateral line. In spring it is 

 dirty silvery, immaculate or sprinkled with small black specks, the fins dusky. In the 

 fall the male is brick-red or blackish, and its jaws are greatly distorted. 



The hump-back salmon ( Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) is the smallest of the species, 

 weighing from three to six pounds. It has usually 15 anal rays, 12 branchiostegals, 

 28 (13+15) gill rakers, and about 180 pyloric ccEca. Its scales are much smaller than 

 in any other salmon, there being 180 to 240 in the lateral line. In color it is bluish 

 above, silvery below, the posterior and upper parts with many round black spots. The 

 males in fall are red, and are more extravagantly distorted than in any other of the 

 Salmonidse. 



Of these species, the blue-back predominates in Frazer River, the silver salmon in 

 Puget Sound, the quinnat in the Columbia and the Sacramento, and the silver salmon 

 in most of the streams along the coast. All the species have been seen by us in the 

 Columbia and in Frazer River ; all but the blue-back in the Sacramento and in waters 

 tributary to Puget Sound. Only thequinnat has been noticed south of San Francisco, 

 and its range has been traced as far as Ventura River. Of these species, the quinnat 

 and blue-back salmon habitually 'run ' in the spring, the others in the fall. The usual 

 order of running in the rivers is as follows : nerlm, tchaieytcha, kisutch, gorbuscha, 

 keta. 



The economic value of the spring-running salmon is far greater than that of the 

 other species, because they can be captured in numbers when at their best, while the 

 others are usually taken only after deterioration. 



The habits of the salmon in the ocean are not easily studied. Quinnat and silver 

 salmon of every size are taken with the seine at almost any season in Puget Sound. 

 The quinnat takes the hook freely in Monterey Bay, both near the shore and at a dis- 

 tance of six or eight miles out. We have reason to believe that these two species do 

 not necessarily seek great depths, but probably remain not very far from the mouth 

 of the rivers in which they were spiawned. 



The blue-back and the dog salmon probably seek deeper water, as the former is 

 seldom or never taken with the seine in the ocean, and the latter is known to enter 

 the Strait of Fuca at the spawning season, therefore coming in from the open sea. 



.The great majority of the quinnat salmon, and nearly all the blue-back salmon, 

 enter the rivers in the spring. The run of both begins genei-ally the last of March ; 

 it lasts, with various modifications and interruptions, until the actvial spawning season 

 in November; the time of running and the proportionate amount of each of the^subor- 



