SALMONOIDE^E. 147 



Having seen only dried specimens of the Salmon of the Atlantic coasts of Ame- 

 rica, I cannot unequivocally refer it to the Salmo salar of European ichthyologists, 

 though popular writers affirm them to be the same. The identity of the Hudson's 

 Bay salmon rests on more uncertain grounds, as I am not aware that it has been 

 examined by any naturalist. I have for many years used every endeavour to pro- 

 cure a specimen in vain. An argument may even be adduced against the specific 

 identity of the Hudson's Bay salmon with the solar, from the fact of its being 

 unknown farther south in the bay than the Churchill river, in latitude 58° 47' N., 

 though Nelson, Hayes, Albany, and Moose rivers, lying between the 50th and 

 57th parallels, abound in the gravel-beds which salmon delight to spawn in. Dried 

 salmon are among the articles of traffic brought to ships by the Esquimaux of 

 Hudson's Straits, and the Salmo salar is mentioned in the Fauna Grcenlandica, 

 though Fabricius states it to be so rare that he never saw it there, and had merely 

 heard of its existence in two bays. It was not taken on any of the late expeditions 

 to the arctic coasts of America or the Northern Georgian islands. It is said to 

 frequent the Kamtschatdale rivers, and though in much smaller numbers than 

 any of the many other anadromous trouts that are known there, it may, perhaps, 

 range to the American side of the sea of Kamtschatka. Every voyager who has 

 visited the north-west coast speaks of the great quantities of salmon taken by the 

 natives; and Langsdorff mentions that " several sorts " of salmon resort to the bays 

 and rivers of Oonalashka, Kodiak, and Norfolk Sound. Eschscholtz, however, 

 who stayed from March to the middle of August in one year, and during the latter 

 part of August and beginning of September in another, on the island of Sitchka, 

 in Norfolk Sound, observes that : ' there is no great variety in the kinds of fish, but 

 the individuals are numerous, especially a well-flavoured sort of salmon." We 

 shall have occasion hereafter to quote some of Lewis and Clark's notices of the 

 trouts of the Columbia. The accounts given by authors of the habits of the Ame- 

 rican salmon are so very meagre, that it is necessary to borrow what we have to 

 say of the natural history of the Salmo salar from the ichthyologists who have best 

 described it as it exists in European waters, 



Few fish have attracted more attention than the Common salmon of the Old 



River broke up. 



River clear. July 3. Caught the first salmon. 



River clear. July 31. Plenty of Sea-trout. August 12. Sea-trout gone. 

 River beginning to open. July 5. River clear. 

 River clear. June 30. First salmon caught. 

 It is to be observed, that the ice accumulates at the mouth of the river for some days after it has broken up opposite to 



the fort. 



# 



u 2 



1809. 



June 17. 



1810. 



19. 



1811. 



23. 



1812. 



10. 



1813. 



20. 



