12 
bulletin of The bureau of fisheries 
from eggs of the preceding fall (1895), were marked by removing the adipose fin, and 
were then liberated. In 1898“ Columbia River cannery men reported the capture of 
some 375 of these marked fish, indicating their return in their third year. Thirty-two 
are reported, with details of sex and weight. Nineteen of these were females, ranging 
from 10 to 35 pounds; 13 were males, from 19 to 57 pounds in weight. The average 
for the 32 is 27.69 pounds, about 5 pounds above the average of all Columbia River 
salmon of this species. 
The following year ^ between 40 and 50 were reported, the average weight said to 
be nearly 10 pounds greater than of those taken in 1898. And in 1900, by offering a 
small reward for marks saved and sent in, the Oregon commissioner received 72, with 
no indication of weight. No further record of the capture of marked fish is contained 
in the Oregon reports. According to this experiment, it would appear that both males 
and females may mature in their third year, and that very large fish (57 pounds) may 
appear among those returning thus early. These results have been accepted by Rutter 
and others, the evidence appearing on its face unimpeachable, but they are so wholly 
at variance with results obtained through a study of the scales that we have scrutinized 
the records with some care. Certain minor inaccuracies are obvious, but the dates are 
well attested, and the only criticism which seems pertinent is that the commissioner 
apparently relied wholly on reports from the canneries, and did not personally inspect 
any of those specimens reported in 1898 and 1899. 
Other marking experiments on the Columbia River, made by the Washington 
Commission at Kalama and Chinook, indicate 4 and 5 years as the age of returning 
fish, none being recorded in the third year. In the well-known planting experiments 
in Tomales Bay, Cal., and in New Zealand, both of which resulted in establishing spawn- 
ing runs in streams which hitherto had not possessed them, no run was reported until 
the fourth year. In view of these facts and others, we must hold in question the report 
of the Oregon experiment of a considerable return in the third year of both males and 
females of large size, in spite of a certain appearance of conclusiveness in the report 
itself. 
The history of the king salmon is known principally from the work of Rutter and 
Scofield on the Sacramento River, and of Chamberlain in Alaska. The fact is well 
attested that large numbers of fry pass into salt water in spring or early summer as soon 
as possible after the absorption of the yolk. Many others, but in unknown proportion, 
remain behind in the streams and migrate the following spring as yearlings. Whether 
any of these, which have been somewhat unfortunately termed “summer residents,” 
pass out during the late summer or on the high water of the fall remains unknown, but 
many if not all of them remain during the following winter. The center of the king 
salmon scale, which records their early history, is subject to more variation than in the 
sockeye, and will require longer investigation in connection with young salmon of 
known history. 
o Sixth Annual Report Fish and Game Protector of State of Oregon, 1898, p. 48. 
b Annual Report Department of Fisheries, State of Oregon, for 1899 (1900), p. 15. 
