SALMON INVESTIGATIONS IN IDAHO. 
265 
The first, i. e., the “ailversides,” are notripe. The males will average 15 to 20 pounds, the females about 
10 pounds. The “ Chinooks ” will average, leaving out the small males, about 15 pounds. The largest 
will weigh 40 pounds. The smallest ones are always little males weighing about 3 pounds, and they 
are nearly all ripe. Do not think I ever saw a female weighing under 8 pounds. 
The height of the spawning season is about the middle of October. They spawn on rather coarse 
gravel with some sand in it, in 1 to 12 feet of water. The principal spawning-ground here is at the 
head of the island. The area covered is about 1,000 feet up and down the river and about 600 feet in 
width. On the other side of the bar is another small spawning-bed. When the spawning time 
arrives the salmon throw the gravel about a good deal; they throw it up into ridges crosswise with 
the stream, like windrows of hay. The tops of the ridges are sometimes so near the surface of the 
water that a boat drags in passing over them, while between the ridges the water may be 4 or 5 
feet deep. Both the male and the female probably work the gravel about; they appear to turn more 
or less on their sides and work the gravel up with their fins. I think they cover the eggs pretty deep, 
for the small trout, whitefish, chubs, and other small fish that eat salmon spawn are there in great 
numbers. Small trout which we often catch in our seine are so gorged with salmon eggs that the eggs 
fall out of their mouths in great numbers when we hold them by the tail. The children bait their 
hooks with salmon spawn and catch great numbers of what we call young trout [they are not trout, 
but the Columbia Biver chub, Myloclieilus caurinus], which bite very quickly, and when they take 
them off the hook they find their stomachs full of salmon eggs. 
I do not know when the eggs hatch. Have seen myriads of very little fish, 1 to 1 1 inches long, in 
the shallow water in the spring, but I do not know whether they are salmon fry or not. I think the 
young salmon must start down stream soon after hatching. I never noticed any, or many, of these 
little fry after high water in May and June. 
I do my fishing from about October 1 to October 25. Last year (1893) I leased my fishery to Mr. 
E. E. Sherman. In 1892 my season’s catch amounted to between 7 and 8 tons, dressed. This included 
a few salmon trout. Most of the early catch are males, but later there are a good many females. We 
sometimes fish for a week or ten days without getting a single female. 
My seine is 300 feet long, 10 feet deep in the wings, and 14 feet deep in the center; the mesh is 4 
inches, or 2-inch bar. I haul the seine in 10 to 15 feet of water and right over the spawning-ground. 
Have caught as many as 200 at a single haul. I sell my fish principally here on the ground to farmers 
and others who come for them. They get them for their own use or to peddle over the country, chiefly 
down in the Baft Biver and Goose Creek country. I get 3 cents a pound, dressed. 
A good many salmon die late in the fall, but I do not think all die. Have sometimes seen old 
males with scars healed up. I have always thought these were fish which had spawned at least onee 
before, but it may be the wounds were received in some other way. 
Dr. Scovell and I spent tlie week from October 1 to 7, inclusive, at Mr. Millet’s, 
which afforded us good opportunities for observing the salmon at that pi ace. Although 
the fish had not yet come in numbers sufficient to justify operating the seine, Mr. 
Millet and his brotlier-in law, Mr. Joseph P. McMeekin, at our recpiest, made several 
hauls each day during our stay. This enabled us to see the method upon whicli their 
fishery is conducted, as well as to note the abundance and condition of the salmon. 
As already stated, Mr. Millet lives upon a large island in Snake River, below Upper 
Salmon Falls. Immediately above the island is a considerable rapid. Only a small 
portion of the river flows to the right of the island. The width of that portion flowing 
to the left of the island is 42S feet, measured at the lower end of Mr. Millet’s hauling 
ground. At this place there is a gravel bar or island, 44 feet wide, separated from the 
main island by a shallow channel 59 feet wide. This leaves only 325 feet as the dis- 
tance across the main channel between the small gravel bar and the left bank of the 
river. The depth in this portion of the river was found to be 14 to 20 feet near the 
left bank and less and less toward the gravel bar. The bottom temperature at 9 a.m. 
October G was 52°. 
The seining is carried on about as follows: From a point about 300 yards above 
the gravel bar, and as near the rapids as the current will permit, the boat is rowed 
rapidly across the stream until most of the seine is paid out. Then, at a distance of 
