90 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



This species is the neatest in form and most symmetrical of the sal- 

 mons. Its usual weight at maturity is about 7 pounds, the range 

 being from 3 to 10 or 11 pounds. The largest example seen in Alaska 

 during these investigations was taken in Chignik Bay, and weighed 10 

 pounds 8. .5 ounces. The flesh of this salmon is deep red and of good 

 quality, though much less juicy than that of the Chinook; it is firmer 

 than that of any other salmon, and lends itself readily to canning proc- 

 esses. In the sea the fish is clear sky blue on the upper part of its 

 body, silvery below, and without spots. After entering the rivers to 

 spawn, the color changes to crimson, at first very bright, but soon 

 becoming darker blood red and more or less blotched. The head, in 

 marked contrast with the body, becomes a bright olive-green in color. 

 In the males the back becomes somewhat humped and the jaws become 

 extravagantly produced and hooked. 



In Alaska this species runs chiefly in July. It is said to run long 

 distances up the Yukon and to the headwaters of the Columbia in the 

 Sawtooth Mountains. It almost invariably spawns in small streams 

 tributary to lakes, occasionally in the lakes themselves about the 

 mouths of the tributary streams. It rarely, if ever, runs in any stream 

 which has not somewhere in its course a lake with available spawning 

 grounds in the stream or streatns at its head. These streams are often 

 very small, perhaps only a few feet across and a few inches deep, but 

 the salmon may enter them in great numbers. The determining fac- 

 tor is always the presence of a lake with suitable spawning beds above 

 it, whether the lake be only a few rods from the sea, as at Boca de 

 Quadra, or many hundreds of miles, as in the case of the Columbia. 



With the red salmon and the chinook of the usual size there are 

 often found much smaller individuals. Among the red salmon these 

 seem most abundant at Chignik Bay, where they are called "Arctic 

 salmon." The small red salmon of Necker Bay, Baranof Island, are 

 probably of the same nature. 



(3) The silver salmon, Oncorhynchus Msutch (Walbaum), is called 

 silversides or silver salmon in the Columbia, coho on Puget Sound 

 and the Fraser River, and coho or silver salmon in Alaska. To the 

 Russians it is known as the Msutch or Melaya ryha^ which means white 

 fish. The flesh of this species is less firm than that of the red salmon, 

 and is rather pale, not possessing the deep-red hue of the latter; also, 

 the scales fall off more readily when the fish is handled. In flavor 

 the flesh is distinctly better, and only the pale color keeps it from 

 ranking with the best of salmon. The silver salmon ascends the 

 streams for short distances only, and when in salt water it seems to 

 remain close inshore. The young can be taken with a seine along 

 the shores in Alaska at almost any time, and seem to remain in the 

 rivers longer than the 3'^oung of the other species. The run occurs in 



