The Salmon 



149 



from San Francisco northward. It is the principal salmon 

 of Japan, being salted in great numbers and sold under the 

 name of sake. Its flesh is very pale and mushy, almost 

 worthless when canned, but better when salted. Many are 

 frozen and sent to the Eastern markets. The dog salmon, 

 as the season goes on, becomes irregularly cross-barred with 

 blackish streaks, by which marks it can be generally told 

 from the others. 



The humpback salmon, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, has 

 much smaller scales than the others. It reaches a smaller 

 size (three to six pounds), and it may be known by the large 

 black spots on its back and tail. It is rarely seen in Cali- 

 fornia, but from Puget Sound northward it is found in un- 

 numbered myriads about the mouth of every stream. It 

 spawns near the sea and in any kind of fresh water. Its 

 flesh is wholesome, but without fine flavor, and it is of a 

 faded brownish color, instead of salmon red. It is largely 

 canned under the name of pink salmon. It sells for about 

 half the price of the red salmon, and is worth still less. Its 

 value, at the best, is little more than the cost of canning, 

 though, as already stated, as food it is quite wholesome, and 

 doubtless as nourishing as the species which taste better and 

 look better. Salted salmon bellies, as prepared in Alaska, 

 are mostly from the humpback salmon, the body of the fish 

 being thrown away. In actual food value, the five species 

 stand in this order : Chinook, silver, red, humpback, dog. In 

 economic importance: red, Chinook, humpback, silver, dog. 

 In the United States, outside of Alaska, the Chinook far 

 outvalues all the rest. But in Alaska and British Columbia, 

 the red salmon greatly predominates. In Japan, only the 

 dog salmon and silver salmon are commonly seen, the first 

 far in excess of the second. 



As a food fish, the Chinook salmon is finer and larger 

 than the salmon of Europe. The latter, however, ranks 

 with our steelhead trout, as superior to the red salmon and 

 perhaps to the silver salmon also. 



