SALMON AND SALMON EIVEKS OF ALASKA. 
189 
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 
In Alaska the salmon family includes numerous species, most of wbich are repre- 
sented by vast numbers of individuals. The sea teems with salmon, trout, and smeit, 
and the rivers and lakes are full of whiteflsh, grayling, and inconnu. 
The largest salmon of the world are credited to this Territory, and there is no 
doubt that in Cook’s Inlet King Salmon weighing over 100 pounds are occasionally 
taken, but this is far above the average weight of the species. The most abundant 
salmon in Alaska are the Red Salmon and the Little Humpback, and it is these species 
which figure in the wonderful tales concerning rivers which contain more fish than 
water, tales which sound incredible to those who Lave never visited Alaska, but which, 
however, in many cases are strictly true. 
The salmon have been traced as far north as Hotham Inlet and one species is 
found well to the eastward of Point Barrow. It is quite probable that this species, 
the little humpback, extends its migration to the Mackenzie. 
There are five species of whitefish in Alaska, one of which reaches a weight of 
over 30 pounds. This whitefish has formerly been confounded with the common one 
of the Great Lakes. It is the species known as Kennicott’s whitefish, now prov^ed 
to be identical with Richardson’s. 
The round whitefish, or the shad waiter of New England and the upper Great 
Lakes, extends through the Northwest Territory, and other parts of British Columbia, 
into Alaska, where it ranges far to the northward. Specimens have been obtained 
in the Putnam or Kuwuk River, a tributary of Hotham Inlet. This is a small fish, 
seldom exceeding 2 pounds in weight, but it is valuable as food and very abundant. 
An excellent species found still farther north is the Coregonus laurettw, which has been 
obtained from the Bristol Bay region to Point Barrow. This is a little larger than the 
round whitefish, but does not much exceed 3 pounds in weight. It resembles our 
so-called lake herring. The other two species are less valuable than the three already 
mentioned, but the natives use them as food in great numbers and feed their dogs upon 
them also. 
A fish resembling the whitefish, but very much larger, more elongate, and with a 
very strongly projecting lower jaw, which has given origin to the name shovel-jawed 
whitefish, is one of the best food-fishes of the Territory and grows very large. It is 
said to reach a weight of 50 pounds and a length of 5 feet. This is the Inconnu of 
the voyageurs or Nelma of the Russians. The Nelina is found in the Mackenzie and 
its tributaries, in the Yukon, and the Kuwuk. Doubtless the species occurs also in 
the Kuskoqnim and the Nushagak. 
