12 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
that they then return to the sea. This information, he says, he obtained from per- 
sonal observation. 
So far as known, observations have not been systematically made on the natural 
spawning- habits of the salmon in Alaska, and only on rare occasions has anyone been 
met who had ever observed salmon spawning there. The cannerymen are in the 
country for fish and not for investigation or scientihc research. Very few have ever 
even seen the lakes supplying the streams from winch they obtain their supply. “In 
the fall the canneries are closed and left in charge of the watchmen, and they, with 
the white stragglers who remain around, probably hibernate. At any rate, they think 
no more of salmon until the next packing season commences. 
Iveference has been made chiefly to the late-spawidug fish. While it is probable 
that many of the fish remain in the fresh water for six Aveeks or two months before 
spawning, others are more advanced and spawn soon after their arrival. The manager 
of Yes Bay cannery states that he has seen young salmon with the egg-sac attached 
as early as the middle of September. Mr. Bell, who has been a permanent resident 
of Alaska for a number of years, and who has been superintendent of a cannery and 
now owns the saltery at Tolstoi (Thorne Bay) where he lives, says that in the late 
fall he has observed large numbers of very young salmon in the lakes; that he has 
frequently watched the spawning fish, and that rarely are the male and female ready 
to spawn at the same time, and the one that is delayed will beat itself on the bowlders 
or gravel apparently to hasten the ripening. He further states that in many instances 
they are unable to void the spawn, and both male and female die before their natural 
functions are fulfilled, he having frequently cut open the dead swollen fish on the 
shore and found the eggs or milt in them. 
Mr. Oallbreath refers to this subject with a similar experience, and I have seen 
the same with dog salmon. 
Mr. Bell, in speaking of humpbacks, remarked that he had seen a number spawn 
in the same nest, others in brackish water, at high tide, and when the nests were 
uncovered at low water the sea birds consumed their eggs, and that he had observed 
well-filled nests destroyed and the eggs thrown out by other humpbacks that had 
selected the same place for their nests. 
At the head of the south arm of ITganuk Bay, Kadiak Island, is a stream having 
dog salmon and a few humpbacks, on which I spent a day, August 11; a description 
of it may give some idea of the appearance of these streams during the spawning- 
season. The following is quoted from field notes: 
Left the ship at 6 a. m. on a general reconnaissance. Passed do-wn South Arm, which we found 
to be a straight, apparently clear body about 5 miles long and an average width of not much less than 
a mile. At the head of the arm is a Hat, through which Hows a small stream about 20 feet wide. It 
was low water, and we landed on the edge of the flat and followed the stream a few hundred yards, 
where it passed between two high rocky hlutfs, probahlj^ a hundred yards apart. Inside this passage 
a large tidal hasiu opened, about 11 miles long by 1 mile wide, which at low water is a great mud 
and gravel Hat with the stream flowing through it by several channels, and at high water is covered 
with 6 or 8 feet of water. At the head of the basin the stream empties between grassy hanks that 
are low and extended for some distance, with here and there a scrub growth. Over the grass X)lain 
bordering the river, the bear trails were as thick as the lines on a checker-board, and in many places 
close to the water the grass w^as beaten down and the bones and half-consumed fish plainly indicated 
the presence of bears. 
At the mouth of the river we first encountered the ascending salmon ; they were mostly of the dog 
species, all barred, though a few- hunuibacks w-ere present. As we advanced they im Teased in 
num- 
