230 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OUINNAT SALMON. 
The quiunat salmou [Oncorliynchm tsehawytscha) has almost as many local names 
as the jSTorth American panther {FelLs comolor). 1 think its first popular name was 
the “ Columbia Eiver salmou,” and its first scientific name, in general use, was 8almo 
quinnat. Time and closer acquaintance with the fish has robbed it of both these 
names. What its most accepted iiopular name is at present it would be hard to say, 
but its generally received scientific name is now Oncorhynchtis tscJuiwytscha, this 
Russian cognomen having been found to supersede by many years the Sahno quinnat 
of Gairduer & Suckley. The origin of the term “quinnat” is involved in obscurity. 
Several explanations have been offered for it, but the most probable seems to be 
that the name was derived from the Indian {Qahinault) of a tributary of the 
Columbia, where the finest salmon of the river were supi^osed to be caught. Every- 
one knows the tendency of every article to take the name of the place where it is 
found at its best; accordingly, the best Columbia River salmon being found in Quiu- 
nault River, all the Columbia River salmon came to be called Qui-miault, or quinnat, 
salmou, the latter word being the former with the I drojiiied. 
Other impular names of this salmon are “spring” salmon and “chinook'’ salmon, 
by which names it is commonly known on the Columbia River. On the Sacramento 
River it is known simply as “salmon,” there being no other kind of salmon to amount 
to anythiug in the Sacramento. Its name in the Chinook dialect is “tyee” salmon 
(king salmon), by which latter name it is kuowji farther north and on the Yukon. 
The local Indian name for salmou on the McCloud is “noolh.” 
The following is Dr. Suckley’s description of the quinnat salmon, taken from the 
United States Fish Commissioner’s Report, 1872-73, i)age 105: 
Salmo quinnat Eichardsou. 
Sp. Ch. — AdtiU . — Head pointed and large, forming about a fourth of the length from the snout to 
the end of the scales on the caudal. Dorsal outline regularly arched. Caudal deeply cut out (in the 
dried specimen forked), snout cartilaginous, as iu S. salar. Chin pointed, a triangular hare ])rojection 
extending beyond the teeth. 
General tint of the back, bluish gray, changing after a few hours’ removal from water into 
mountain green ; sides ash-gray, with silvery luster; belly white; back above the lateral line studded 
with irregular rhomboidal or star-like spots, some of them oscillated ; dorsal flu and gill cover slightly 
reddish; tips of the anal .and pectorals blackish gray; tlie dorsal and caudal thickly studded with 
round and rhomboidal spots; back of the head sparingly marked with the same. The whole body 
below the lateral line, with the under fins, destitute of spots. (Gairduer in Kich., F. B. A., Fishes, 
220.) Scales large. Branchiostegal rays varying from 16 to 20. 
Tbe quinnat salmon or cliinook salmon is very widely distributed on tlie Pacific 
coast. As far south as the mild climate of Santa Cruz iu California it is caught, and 
as far north as the frozen waters of the Arctic it is found in abundance; and no Pacific 
Coast stream from the Sacramento to the Yukon is found without it. 
The quiunat salmon, when freshly caught and iu its prime, is a very handsome, 
plump-looking, silvery fish, more or less covered with fine black spots; and though 
it shows its claim to royal lineage in its whole appearance, it does not possess the 
graceful hues and curves of its Atlantic cousin, Salmo salar, which, hoAvever, it very 
much resembles. In flavor, also, its fiesh, though good when cooked, sufiers from 
