NATURAL HISTORY OF THE QUINNAT SALMON. 
141 
Altogether 12 tagged fishes were seen after dying, and the average time that 
they lived after tagging was 11 days. The longest time was 16 days; some had 
probably been in the creek a few days when tagged, though the freshest were selected. 
Two weeks is a very fair estimate of the length of life after reaching the spawning- 
grounds. Branded specimen No. 91, a female, lived but 8 days after reaching the 
spawning-grounds. 
DEATH. 
The salmon of the genus Oncorhynchus apparently has no instinct whatever to 
return to salt water after spawning. Worn-out specimens are sometimes seen drift- 
ing down stream and have been found as far down as Sacramento, though it is by 
no means certain that such have been on spawning-beds. In such cases they are 
simply too weak to stem the current and, according to a Sacramento fisherman, 
“not fit to look at. ” Dead salmon rarely float, though the current sometimes washes 
them along the bottom a short distance I have seen dead salmon lie for several 
days in rapids and have seen them in all stages of decay in strong currents. Of the 
200 or more dead salmon that were marked and thrown over the upper rack at 
Battle Creek fishery in 1900, only 2 were carried to the lower rack, which was a half 
mile further down stream. In small streams the water is often greatly contaminated 
by the dead fish, and the stench is a great nuisance to people living in the vicinity. 
The great variation in size of spawning salmon, together with the occasional pres- 
ence of certain scars, such as a broken nose, has led many people to doubt whether 
they all die after spawning once. The variation in size amounts to nothing as an 
argument, when we know that with about 60 marked fishes known to be of the same 
age, taken in the Columbia River in 1898, the variation in size was from 10 to 57 
pounds. The broken nose could be received at many other times than when spawning. 
It is sometimes thought that if a spawned-out salmon would float down stream to 
salt water it would revive, but such is not the case. Humpback and dog salmon 
often spawn in small creeks and brooks that empty directly into the ocean, yet they 
die like other species. They have been seen dying and dead in brackish water. 
The investigation of the blueback salmon or redfish in Idaho in 1895 (see Bulletin 
United States Fish Commission 1896, p. 192), when a net was placed across the 
mouth of a small stream containing about a thousand salmon, proved that that spe- 
cies has no tendency to return to salt water after spawning. Lake Karluk, Kadiak 
Island, Alaska, is but about 20 miles from the ocean and is a great spawning-place for 
the blueback salmon. The outlet is shallow near the mouth, and if the salmon 
ever went back the Indians would be sure to see them, but they do not. In June, 
1897, the shore of the lake for miles was lined with the bones of the salmon that 
had died six to eight months previously. 
The fact that all salmon of the genus Oncorhynchus die very shortly after 
spawning once can not be questioned. 
