NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 



In Alaska the salmon family includes numerous species, most of which are repre 

 sented by vast numbers of individuals. The sea teems with salmon, trout, and smelt, 

 and the rivers and lakes are full of whitefish, grayling and inconnu. 



The largest salmon of the world are credited to this Territory, and there is no 

 doubt that in Cook's Inlet King Salmon weighing over 100 pounds are occasionally 

 taken, but this is far above the average weight of the rpecies. The most abundant 

 salmon in Alaska are theEed Salmon and the Little Humpback, and it is these species 

 which figure in the wonderful tales concerning rivers which contain more fish than 

 water, tales which sound incredible to those who have never visited Alaska, but which, 

 however, in many cases are strictly true. 



The salmon have been traced as far. north as Hotham Inlet and one species is 

 found well to the eastward of Point Barrow. It is quite probable that this species, 

 the Little Humpback, extends its migration to the Mackenzie. 



There are five species of whitefish in Alaska, one of which reaches a weight of 

 over 30 pounds. This whitefish has formerly been confounded with the common one 

 of the Great Lakes. It is the species known as Kennicott's whitefish, now proved 

 to be identical with Richardson's. 



The round whitefish, or the shad waiter of New England and the upper Great 

 Lakes, exteuds through the Northwest Territory, and other parts of British Columbia, 

 into Alaska, where it ranges far to the northward. Specimens have been obtained 

 in the Putnam or Kuwuk River, a tributary of Hotham Inlet. This is a small fish, 

 seldom exceeding 2 pounds in weight, but it is valuable as food and very abundant. 

 An excellent species found still farther north is the Coregonus laurettce, which has been 

 obtained from the Bristol Bay region to Point Barrow. This is a little larger than the 

 round whitefish but does not much exceed 3 pounds in weight. It resembles our so- 

 called lake herring. The other two species are less valuable than the three already 

 mentioned, but the natives use them as food in great numbers and feed their dogs upon 

 them, also. 



A fish resembling the whitefish, but very much larger, more elongate, and with a 

 very strongly projecting lower jaw, which has given origin to the name shovel-jawed 

 whitefish, is one of the best food-fishes of the Territory and grows very large. It is 

 said to reach a weight of 50 pounds and a length of 5 feet. This is the Inconnu of 

 the voyageurs or Nelma of the Russians. The Nelma is found in the Mackenzie and 

 its tributaries, in the Yukon, and the Kuwuk. Doubtless the species occurs also in 

 the Kuskoquim and the Nushagak. 



The Grayling, or blanket fish, is very abundant in the Territory, especially north- 

 ward. Its range southward is not clearly known, but in the northern part of British 

 America and from the Yukon north to the Kuwuk it is very abundant. 



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