180 Observations on the Salmon of the Pacific. [ March, 
inches in length were rare. All, large and small, then in the river, 
of either sex, had the ovaries or milt well developed. 
Little blue-backs of every size down to six inches are also found 
_in the Upper Columbia in the fall, with their organs of generation 
fully developed. Nineteen-twentieths of these young fish are 
males, and some of them have the hooked jaws and red color of 
the old males. 
The average weight of the quinnat in the Columbia, in the spring, 
is twenty-two pounds; in the Sacramento about sixteen. Indi- 
viduals weighing from forty to sixty pounds are frequently found 
in both rivers, and some as high as eighty pounds are reported. 
It is questioned whether these large fishes are: (a.) Those which, 
of the same age, have grown more rapidly ; (4.) Those which are 
older but have, for some reason, failed to spawn; or (c.) Those 
which have survived one or more spawning seasons. All of these 
origins may be possible in individual cases; we are, however, of 
the opinion that the majority of these large fish are those which 
have hitherto run in the fall and so may have survived the spawn- 
ing season previous. 
Those fish which enter the rivers in the spring, continue their 
ascent until death or the spawning season overtakes them, Prob- 
ably none of them ever return to the ocean, and a large propor- 
tion fail to spawn. They are known to ascend the Sacramento as 
far as the base of Mount Shasta, or to its extreme head-waters, 
about four hundred miles. In the Columbia they are known to 
ascend as far as the Bitter Root mountains, and as far as the 
Spokan 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 spawn- 
ing grounds, besides the usual changes of the breeding season, 
their bodies are covered with bruises on which patches of white 
fungus develop. The fins become mutilated, their eyes are often 
injured or destroyed; parasitic worms gather in their gills, they 
become extremely emaciated, their flesh becomes white from the 
loss of the oil, and as soon as the spawning act is accomplished, 
and sometimes before, all of them die. The ascent of the Cas- 
cades and the Dalles probably causes the injury or death of a 
great many salmon. 
When the salmon enter the river they refuse bait, and their 
stomachs are always found empty and contracted. In the rivers 
