SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 35 



This salmon begins spawning soon after its arrival on the coast, and this varies 

 with the locality. The season usually begins in June, and fish, which have not yet 

 spawned, continue to arrive as late as the beginning of September. Spawning cer- 

 tainly takes place in August, as we know from personal observation. Dead fish and 

 others which have spawned and are already dying are very abundant about the 

 middle of this month. We did not find many Eed Salmon on our way up the Karluk 

 River. In Karluk Lake, near the sources of the river, ripe Red Salmon were speared 

 by the natives August 17. On the 18th of the same month we found large numbers of 

 dead salmon of this species, and plenty of both sexes, which were spent and nearly 

 dead, in the rivers connecting Karluk Lake with its tributary lakes. In all of the little 

 streams falling into Karluk Lake, in which Red Salmon were found, dead fish were 

 moderately common. We found, also, an abundance of young salmon about 1J inches 

 long, which I suppose must have been young of the year, hatched from eggs deposited 

 during the preceding winter. Mr. Charles Hirsch informed me that "in March or 

 April the Karluk River is solid full for a whole month of salmon fry going down to 

 sea." 



We found salmon nests at the head of Karluk Lake in shallow water near the 

 shore between the mouths of two streams. The nest is a hollow circular pile of stones, 

 and the eggs are placed in the crevices between the stones. In the river connecting 

 the east arm of Karluk Lake with its tributary additional nests of the salmon were 

 observed. In some cases streams fall down iuto Karluk Lake over bluffs, which are 

 too steep for the salmon to ascend, and the fish were spawning at the mouths of such 

 streams. 



Extensive changes take place in the color of the Red Salmon as the spawning 

 season approaches. When it comes in from the sea the skin becomes dark and the 

 beautiful red color of the flesh gives place to a paler tint. In this condition the fish 

 has no commercial value. In the height of the spawning season the sides are suffused 

 with a brilliant vermilion and the head is a rich olive -green, contrasting sharply with 

 the color of the body. The male develops a hump, nearly as large as that of the hump- 

 back, and its jaws are greatly enlarged. 



The eggs and young of the Red Salmon have many enemies, and the percentage 

 of fish naturally developed from eggs must be exceedingly small. Every salmon nest 

 has its greedy horde of little fresh-water sculpius, otherwise known as Miller's thumbs, 

 blobs and bull-heads ( Uranidea spp.), always in readiness to consume the fresh eggs 

 in quantities out of all proportion to their size. The shoal waters around the 

 shores of Karluk Lake, and the shallow streams into which the Red Salmon finds its 

 way for reproduction, contain myriads of these destructive little sculpins. Another 

 source of destruction to the eggs is found in the dolly varden trout (Salvelinus mahna), 

 which is only too common on the spawniug grounds of the salmon. This trout con- 

 sumes large quantities of the fresh salmon eggs. The waters referred to contain, also, 

 a great many sticklebacks (Gasterosteus sp.), some of them of very large size, and it is 

 probable that these little fish destroy eggs. 



Chief among the destroyers of the young fish are terns, gulls, ducks, and loons, 

 which are very common in that region. I shot some terns and gulls near the south end 

 of Karluk Lake and upon holding them up by the legs small salmon dropped out of 

 their mouths. Towards the end of August the shallow parts of Karluk River were vis- 

 ited by hundreds of gulls, chiefly young of Larus glaucescens and L. brachyrhynchus, 



