272 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
.3 or 4 to 7 or 8 poumls. They rnu at the same time and with the large, or what wo term the royal 
Chinook salmon. The other small fish caught are blueback and a very few small steelheads. The 
bliiebacks of the sizes caught are what we consider the average of the run, and of the small steel- 
heads that are caught there are too few to be worthy of consideration. 
There seems to exist quite a diversity of opinion with regard to the small salmon referred to, 
some persons asserting that they are small chiuook, Avhile others insist, on account of the paleness of 
the flesh, that they are another and different species, or white salmon. The last claim is made mainly 
by persons interested in those inodes of fishing by which small fish are taken. After a thorough 
investigation we feel that we can positively assert that those small salmon so taken, not including 
bluebacks and steelheads, are small chinook salmon, and we.shall here give our reasons for coming to 
that conclusion. 
During our investigation up and down the Columbia rye carefully compared those small salmon 
with the large salmon, and we found that in every respect, except color of flesli, they had the same 
distinguishing characteristics that the large salmon have. We also had hundreds of those small 
salmon opened, and every one of them proved to be a male salmon. The smallest female salmon found 
by us during all our investigation was one caught near Astoria, which weighed 9t pounds. 
The chairman of this committee has had the opportunity of examining into that question for many 
j^ears. He has examined hundreds — he could safely say thousands — of those small salmon, and all 
that he has ever examined were male except one, and that one weighed pounds, that being the 
smallest female salmon ever seen by him, the next smallest being the one seen by tlie committee, and 
weighing 94 pounds. 
Since 1887, Senator L. T. Barin, the chairman of the committee whose report has 
been (inoted, has been ottering $25 for any female chinook salmon weighing 7 xtounds 
or less, caught in the nets of the Colombia Eiver fishermen. 
Senator Barin has made some interesting observations, which probably throw 
light on the stnnted-fish problem, and has communicated the same to me. Some 
years ago, on an island at the mouth of the Willamette Eiver, he ascertained that 
some blind sloughs, inhabited by catfish, contained numbers of small chinook salmon. 
The sloughs had not been overllowed for two years, to the positive knowledge of Mr. 
Barin, and the fish must, therefore, have been retained for at least that length of time. 
They were much stunted in growth, owing, as the observer supposes, to deficiency of 
food. He thinks that every year larger or smaller numbers of parrs are left in blind 
sloughs adjacent to the rivers, and are liberated in a dwarfed condition, after one or 
two seasons, by the recurrence of freshets similar to those which caused their retention. 
In Mr. Barin’s opinion all ax)xmrent]y stunted salmon taken in the river are fish 
which have been left in sloughs without sufficient food and other suitable conditions. 
An uuexxfiamed fact, however, is that all the small fish appear to be males. 
Quality of faU chinoolc salmon . — The canners lay great stress on the poor quality of 
fall chinook salmon and the little value they possess for canning. The fish which run 
in September and October are healthy-looking and have little suiterficial difference 
from tlie spring and summer fish. They are apt to have a somewhat jialer flesh, how- 
ever, and the meat is destitute of oil, which is essential to first-quality fish. 
While the ordinary fish will sell for $5.25 x>er case of 48 one-pound cans, these 
fish can never be sold as No. 1 fish, and have to be diverted to an inferior trade, 
not even ranking with good second-class fish. The demand is limited, and their sale 
tends to reduce the reputation of the Columbia Eiver salmon. The differences between 
the early and late fish when canned are very marked, and maybe appreciated even by 
a novice. Natural oil of a rich yellow color will be found in a can of fish taken before 
September, while no oil worthy of mention will be found in the late fish. There is no 
difference in the size or appearance of the fish, and often little or no difference in the 
•color of the fish before or after cooking. 
