salmonoidejE. 219 



with straw, over which skins are placed ; on these the fish, after being well dried, 

 are laid, covered with other skins, and the hole closed with a layer of earth twelve 

 or fifteen inches deep." (Idem, p. 278.) It is very probable that the same species 

 of salmon may frequent the North-west coast and Kamtschatka, but Steller's de- 

 scriptions, as quoted by Pennant, are not sufficiently detailed to enable us to iden- 

 tifv them. 



[82. J 11. Salmo quinnat. The Quinnat. 



Sub-genus, Salmo. Cuvier. 



"This is the species which ascends the Columbia earliest in the season, com- 

 mencing its run in the month of May in enormous shoals, clearing the greater 

 Dalles, cascades and rapids innumerable, and making its way to the sources of the 

 river, where, at the close of the season, it is found dead on the beach in great num- 

 bers. The muscular power of this fish is truly astonishing, even in a class of the 

 animal kingdom remarkable for vigorous movements, for it may be seen ascending 

 channels at the Kettle Falls so rapid, that when a stone as big as a man's head is 

 dropped into them, it is shot downwards with the swiftness of an arrow *. Indivi- 

 duals of this species have often been seen with their noses fairly worn down to the 

 bone, and in the last stage of emaciation, yet still striving, to the last gasp, to ascend 

 the stream. The selection of particular streams for spawning is a remarkable fea- 

 ture in the history of the fish. It ascends the Walamet, Snake, and Kootanie 

 rivers, &c, and passes by the Kawalitch, Okanagan, Dease's river and others, 

 seeming to prefer a rapid stream interrupted by falls, to one of a quieter character, 

 though other circumstances must regulate its choice, as some of the rivers which it 

 refuses to enter have an extremely rapid current. It is this salmon which forms 

 the main subsistence of the numerous hordes of Indians who live upon the banks 

 of the Columbia, and it is known by the name of quinnat, for one hundred and fifty 

 miles from the mouth of the river. It attains a large size, weighing often from 

 thirty to forty pounds." — G. [The quinnat is evidently the " Common salmon " 

 of Lewis and Clarke, whose description of it we have quoted in page 162. These 

 travellers mention the first arrival of the salmon at the Skilloot village, below the 

 site of Fort Vancouver, as having occurred on the 18th of April, in the year 1806. 

 -R.] 



* In the map published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, the descent at the Kettle Falls is stated 

 at twenty-one feet ; but Lewis and Clarke were of opinion that in high floods the water below the falls rises nearly to a 

 level with that above them. — R. 



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