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identical with the European form. With the advent of people 
from the Atlantic States to the Pacific Coast, they found running 
in all the main rivers a fish similar in form and colour, and of 
apparently similar habits, and they naturally called them salmon. 
Structurally these fish are but slightly different, but their life 
history is totally dissimilar, and they are distinctly and positively 
placed. The greatest difference is presented in the fact that all the 
species found in Pacific waters die shortly after spawning once. 
This is true of both sexes. This remarkable characteristic, when 
first brought to the attention of some Atlantic and European 
authorities, was discredited, as they did not then generally know 
that the Pacific salmon was different from and not identical with 
the salmo salar, which does not die after spawning, and generally 
returns to salt water after depositing its ova. While our Pacific 
fish are not salmon in a scientific sense, they are now the salmon 
of the world, because of their abundance and their fine canning 
qualities, which permit them to be offered in the markets of the 
civilized world. 
“Taken in the order of their commercial importance in the 
Province, they are known as:—(1) The Sockeye or Blueback 
(Oncorhynchus nerka); (2) the Spring or Quinnat (O. tschawy- 
tscha); (3) the Coho or Silver (O. kisutch); (4) the Dog (O. 
keta) ; (5) the Humpback or chum (O. gorbuscha). 
The Sockeye. 
“(1.) The Sockeye weighs from 3 to 10 pounds, though speci- 
mens of 17 pounds in weight are recorded. The anal fin is long, and 
has about 14 developed rays. There are 14 branchiostegals. The gill- 
rakers are more numerous than in any other salmon, 32 to 4o. 
The young fry of this species can always be distinguished by the 
great number of the gill-rakers. The scales of the adult usually 
average 130 to 140 in the lateral line. The tail is narrow and widely 
forked. The adults in salt water are free from spots; the backs 
are a clear blue, and below the lateral line they are immaculate. 
They are in form and colour considered the most beautiful of their 
family. 
“ The bluish backs and silvery sides, which so distinguish them 
in salt water, give place in the headwaters, at spawning time, to a 
deep carmine, while the head and tails become a deep olive green, 
the male and female being equally highly coloured in the specimens 
found in the extreme headwaters of the Province. The head of 
the male undergoes less distortion in our waters than any of this 
genus. Specimens which enter the rivers towards the last of the 
