THE SALMON FISHERIES OF THE LOWER COLUMBIA. 745 
they are not at once recognized. The idea that each river on any coast has its own peculiar species 
of salmon is grossly erroneous. The impression, prevalent for a time, that some twenty different 
species occurred in the Columbia, each with a peculiar time to run and to spawn, is also incorrect. 
The ability to tell a trout from a young salmon, or to recognize the same fish through all its pro- 
tean changes, has been vouchsafed to few of those who have written on them. It is fair to say 
that the account written in 1740 by Steller, the first discoverer of these species, is to this day the 
most accurate notice of the different species. a 
The blue-back salmon, as above noticed, runs in the spring with the quinnat. It is a band. 
somer and more gracefully-formed fish, but much smaller, its average weight being 5 or 6 pounds 
and rarely exceeding 10. At the canneries four blue-backs are usually counted as one quinnat 
salmon. 
With the salmon, in spring, a large trout is taken (Salmo gairdneri Rich), known as the steel- 
head or steel-head salmon. Its usual weight is about 16 pounds. It has no value -to the canner, 
as its flesh is pale and its bones are not soft when boiled. Most of those seen in spring are spent 
fish, not yet recuperated from the last spawning season. 
2. THE FISHERMEN. 
There are about twenty-five hundred men employed in the salmon fishery of the Lower Co- 
lumbia River, about half of them living in Astoria, the rest in the other canning towns. A discus- 
sion of their characteristics and nationality will be found in the chapters on fishermen, in Section 
IV. Their rate of wages and profits will also be discussed in another section of this report. 
3. THE CANNERIES AND THEIR OUTFIT. 
The canneries in operation in 1880 are the following: 
OREGON. 
Astoria.—Astoria Packing Company, Astoria Fishery (A. C. Kinney), John A. Devlin & Co., 
William Hume, George W. Hume. 
Upper Astoria.—Anglo-American Packing Company, Badollet & Co., A. Booth & Co., Fisher- 
man’s Packing Company, J. O. Hanthorn & Co., Watson.& Bannan, West Coast Packing Com- 
pany, S. D. Adair & Co., James Williams & Co. (Tanzy Point). . 
Clifton.—Oregon Packing Company (J. W. & V. Cook). 
Quinn’s.—James Quinn. 
Westport.—John West & Co. 
Rainier.—Jackson & Myers. 
WASHINGTON. 
Unity—Aberdeen Packing Company. 
Knappton.—Joseph Hume. 
Pillar Rock.—Pillar Rock Packing Company. 
Fisherton.—Columbia Canning Company. 
Hagle Clif.—William Hume, Cutting Packing Company. 
Eureka.—Eureka Packing Company. 
Hapgood’s.— Hapgood & Co. 
Brookfield. —J. G. Megler & Co. 
Cathlamet.—F. M. Warren. 
Bay View.—R. D. Hume. 
