THE SALMON FAMILY. 53 
have the hooked jaws and red color of the old 
males. 
The average weight of the quinnat in the Colum- 
bia, in the spring, is twenty-two pounds; in the 
Sacramento, about sixteen. Individuals weighing 
from forty to sixty pounds are frequently found in 
both rivers, and some as high as eighty or even 
one hundred pounds are recorded. It is questioned 
whether these large fishes are those which, of the 
same age, have grown more rapidly; those which 
are older, but have for some reason failed to 
spawn; or those which have survived one or more 
spawning seasons. All these origins may be pos- 
sible in individual cases; we are, however, of the 
opinion that the majority of these large fishes are 
those which have hitherto run in the fall, and thus 
having spawned not far from the sea, have survived 
the spawning season of the previous year. 
Those fish which enter the rivers in the spring 
continue their ascent till death or the spawning 
season overtakes them. Probably none of them 
ever return to the ocean, and a large proportion 
fail to spawn. They are known to ascend the Sac- 
ramento to its extreme head-waters, about four 
hundred miles. In the Columbia they ascend as 
far as the Bitter Root Mountains and at least 
to the Spokane Falls, and their extreme limit is 
not known. This is a distance of six to eight 
hundred miles. At these great distances, when 
the fish have reached the spawning grounds, be- 
sides the usual changes of the breeding season, 
their bodies are covered with bruises, on which 
patches of white fungus develop. The fins become 
