FISHES. 155 



are known to ascend as far as the Bitter Root Mountains, and as far as the Spokane 

 Falls, and their extreme limit is not known. This is a distance of six to eight hun- 

 dred miles. 



At these great distances, Avhen the fish have reached the spawning grounds, besides 

 the usual changes of the breeding season, their bodies are covered with bruises, on 

 which patches of white fungus develop. The fins become mutilated, their eyes are 

 often injured or destroyed ; parasitic worms gather in their gills, they become extremely 

 emaciated, their flesh becomes white from the loss of the oil, and as soon as the spawn- 

 ing act is accomplished, and sometimes before, all of them die. The ascent of the 

 Cascades and the Dalles j)robably causes the injury or death of a great many salmon. 

 When the salmon enter the river they refuse bait, and their stomachs are always 

 found empty and contracted. In the rivers they do not feed, and when they reach 

 the spawning grounds, their stomachs, pyloric coeca and all, are said to be no larger 

 than one's finger. They will sometimes take the fly, or a hook baited with salmon roe, 

 in the clear waters of the upper tributaries, but there is no other evidence known to 

 us that they feed when there. Only the quinnat and blue-back (then called red-fish) 

 have been found in the fall at any great distance from the sea. 



The spawning season is probably about the same for all the species. It varies for 

 all in different rivers, and in different parts of the same river, and doubtless extends 

 from July to December. The manner of spawning is probably similar for all the spe- 

 cies, but we have no data for any except the quinnat. In this species the fish pair off; 

 the male, with tail and snout, excavates a broad, shallow ' nest ' in the gravelly bed of 

 the stream, in rapid water, at a depth of one to four feet ; the female deposits her 

 eggs in it,. and, after the exclusion of the milt, they cover them with stones and gravel. 

 They then float down the stream tail foremost. A great majority of them die. In 

 the head-waters of the large streams, unquestionably, all die ; in the small streams, 

 and near the sea, an unknown percentage probably survive. The young hatch in 

 about sixty days, and most of them return to the ocean during the high water of the 

 spring. • • 



The salmon of all kinds in the spring are silvery, spotted or not according to the 

 sjiecies, and with the mouth about equally symmetrical in both sexes. 



As the spawning season approaches, the female loses her silvery color, becomes more 

 slimy, the scales on the back partly sink into the skin, and the flesh changes from sal- 

 mon red and becomes variously paler, from the loss of the oil; the degree of paleness 

 varying much with individuals and with inhabitants of different rivers. 



In the lower Sacramento the flesh of the quinnat in either spring or fall is rarely 

 pale. In the Columbia, a few with pale flesh are sometimes taken in spring, and a 

 good many in the fall. In Frazer River the fall run of the quinnat is nearly worth- 

 less for canning purposes, because so many are white meated. In the spring very few 

 are white meated, but the number increases towards fall, when there is every variation, 

 some having red streaks running through them, others being red toward the head and 

 pale toward the tail. The red and pale ones cannot be distinguished externally, and 

 the color is dependent neither on age nor sex. There is said to be no difference in 

 the taste, but there is no market for canned salmon not of the conventional orange 

 color. 



As the season advances, the difference between the males and females become more 

 and more marked, and keep joace with the development of the milt, as is shown by 

 dissection. 



