1881. ] Observations on the Salmon of the Pacific. 183 
simply due to facing the flood tide. Afterwards they enter the 
deepest parts of the stream and swim straight up, with few inter- 
ruptions, Their rate of travel on the Sacramento is estimated by 
Stone at about two miles per day; on the Columbia at about 
three miles per day. 
As already stated, the economic value of any species depends 
in great part on its being a “spring salmon.” It is not generally 
possible to capture salmon of any species in large numbers until 
they have entered the rivers, and the spring salmon enter the 
rivers long before the growth of the organs of reproduction has 
reduced the richness of the flesh. The fall salmon cannot be 
taken in quantity until their flesh has deteriorated; hence the 
“dog salmon” is practically almost worthless, except to the 
Indians, and the hump-back salmon is little better. The silver 
salmon, with the same breeding habits as the dog salmon, is more 
valuable, as it is found in Puget sound fora considerable time 
before the fall rains cause the fall runs, and it may be taken in 
large numbers with seines before the season for entering the 
rivers. The quinnat salmon, from its great size and abundance is 
more valuable than all other fishes on our Pacific coast together. 
The blue-back, similar in flesh but much smaller and less abun- 
' dant, is worth much more than the combined value of the three 
remaining species. 
The fall salmon of all species, but especially the dog salmon, 
ascend streams but a short distance before spawning. They seem 
to be in great anxiety to find fresh water and many of them work 
their way up little brooks only a few inches deep, where they 
soon perish miserably, floundering about on the stones, Every 
stream, of whatever kind, has more or less of these fall salmon. 
It is the prevailing impression that the salmon have some 
special instinct which leads them to return to spawn in the same 
spawning grounds where they were originally hatched. We fail 
to find any evidence of this in the case of the Pacific coast sal- 
mon, and we do not believe it to be true. It seems more prob- 
able that the young salmon, hatched in any river, mostly remain 
in the ocean within a radius of twenty, thirty or forty miles of its 
mouth. These, in their movements about in the ocean, may come 
into contact with the cold waters of their parent rivers, or perhaps 
of any other river, at a considerable distance from the shore. In 
the case of the quinnat and the blue-back, their “instinct ” leads 
