34 SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



as the time when the natives of Attu Island prepare weirs (zapor of the Eussians) to 

 obstruct the passage of the Red Salmon to their spawning-grounds. The species does 

 not appear to be common on the coast of Norton Sound, according to Nelson, but it is 

 more abundant in the Lower Yukon, the main run occurring about the middle of 

 August and lasting sometimes ouly two or three days, but usually a week or ten days. 



When we left Karluk at the end of August the Red Salmon were still running into 

 that river, but had greatly diminished in numbers and had become so dark in color as 

 to he unfit for canning. At Afognak the run usually lasts only during the first three 

 weeks of July, although they first appear about the middle of June, and as already 

 remarked, a few small ones occasionally come about the 1st of April. The runs of 

 fish appear to vary a good deal from year to year. Some of the fishermen at St. Paul 

 believe that every fourth year is a good salmon year. Mr. Charles Hirsch told me that 

 in Cook's Inlet, the Ninilchic, Kusilov, Keuai, and Sushitna Rivers all have salmon 

 runs, but the kind of fish varies from year to year. We have seen how an unexpected 

 run of Humpbacks may prevent the Red Salmon altogether from entering its chosen 

 river. 



Mr. Hirsch says that in coming from the sea the Red Salmon approach from all 

 directions. They have been seen about 1 J miles distant from the land, and when they 

 approach nearer the schools break up. This species is very much given to jumping 

 entirely out of water, and it is a common sight, where this fish abounds, to see a dozen 

 or more in the air at a time. At Karluk the fish play around in the kelp beds, espe- 

 cially when frightened by the seines, and here they are perfectly safe from the fisher- 

 men. The red salmon does not linger long in salt water after its arrival on the coast. 

 Fresh run fish sometimes go into the river with the tide and out again the same day 

 with the ebb. 



Young fish occasionally accompany the adults, but all of those examined by me 

 proved to be males. On the 13th of August we obtained a male Red Salmon 11 inches 

 long to the root of the tail. This example contained numerous intestinal worms. 



It is asserted by Mr. Charles Hirsch and others, who have had much experience 

 with the Red Salmon, that no spawning fish of this species ever leave Karluk River 

 alive. 



Natives of Karluk informed me that they can catch salmon at any time during the 

 winter through the ice on Karluk River and lake. They assert, also, that all the Red 

 Salmon die in the spring, most of them in April. 



After entering the rivers the Red Salmon may return to the salt water as already 

 stated, but if the spawning season be near at hand and the spawning grounds remote 

 they travel up the stream very rapidly. I have seen them playing about in the rapids, 

 apparently resting, during the ascent of the Karluk. Numerous beds of eel grass and 

 other aquatic plants furnish attractive hiding places in which the fish sometimes 

 linger. 



The Red Salmon ascends to the lake or lakes, which the river drains, and it is 

 said that this species will not enter a river which does not arise from a lake. The 

 distance traveled in the Karluk is less than 20 miles, and the principal lake is 8 miles 

 long. Red Salmon spawn in this lake and in the short and rapid rivers connecting 

 each of its arms with smaller tributary lakes. The species ascends long rivers, like 

 the Columbia, more than 1,000 miles, to reach its spawning lakes. 



