24 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
pleasures of angling. As a food-fish its quality is excellent, and it reaches a weight of 
20 pounds or more. The species is black- spotted, the spots being larger and less 
numerous in Alaskan individuals than in most of the varieties which range southward 
in the Rocky Mountain region. The crimson streak around the throat is a conspicuous 
and characteristic color mark in all the many forms of this well-known trout. 
Before passing to a review of the Pacific salmons we must recall the fact that 
Alaska has a bountiful supply of small fishes closely related to the larger Salmonidce. 
A true smelt (PI. ix, Fig. 2) and two kinds of surf smelt (one of these on PI. ix, Fig. 3) 
are among the common fishes, the first being a food-fish of considerable value. The 
capelin (PI. ix, Fig. 1), abounds on all parts of the coast, and is one of the most impor- 
tant food species of the cod and salmon. The eulaclion, or candle-fish, is extremely 
abundant in southern Alaska, and is considered one of the finest pan-fishes known. 
A kind of fat is expressed from it which the Indians use as a substitute for butter, 
and which some pharmacists employ in the place of cod-liver oil. The species is so 
full of oil that when dried it will burn with a bright flame. 
These smaller representatives of the salmon family have at present little commer- 
cial value, but they will figure eventually and very prominently among the resources 
of Alaska. In addition to their value as food for man, they play a very important 
part in attracting the larger commercial fishes of the salmon family to certain localities. 
It may be well to state that the herring of Alaska is one of the finest species of 
the genus Clupea, and is universally known as one of the fishes upon which the sal- 
mon subsist. The herring visits all parts of the coast of Alaska, running up into the 
bays in schools, sometimes covering an area of many square miles. It comes into the 
shallow waters of the bays to deposit its eggs, reaching Cook Inlet for this purpose 
early in July, so that its appearance in force coincides with the height of the salmon 
runs The capelin is also found early in the summer, and we know that salmon are 
very eager in their pursuit of this fish. The little sand launce, or lant, is also present 
in the bays in wriggling masses at the period when salmon abound. 
The marine life of the Alaskan salmon is unknown from the time the young, in 
their newly-acquired silvery dress, leave the fresh water nursery to become salt-water 
sailors, until they have ended their cruise, obtained their liberty, and come ashore, 
when, as in the case of so many other salt-water sailors, their serious trouble begins. 
Salmon remain in fresh water until the second. or third spring of their existence, and 
not having a bountiful supply of food, they grow very slowly and seldom exceed 8 
inches in length when they start seaward. In the ocean they feed on the capelin, the 
herring, and a small needle-shaped fish called the lant. They are reputed also to con- 
sume large quantities of pink-fleshed crustaceans, and to derive from them their 
attractive color. Opposed to this theory is the fact tliat many other sea fishes whose 
food consists almost entirely of such crustaceans are never pink-fleshed. 
There is no such fishery at sea for any of the Pacific salmons as there is in the Baltic 
for the Atlantic salmon. After the great schools have broken up and the scattered 
fish come into the bays, some of the species can be caught on a herring-baited hook 
by trolling. The king and silver salmon are captured in this way. 
As a rule the fish remain at sea until they are about ready to deposit their eggs, 
and then approach the coast in great masses. A few youngs males accompany the 
schools every year, and may or may not return to sea without entering the rivers. The 
adult fish come up from the sea at a certain time of the year, the king salmon arriving 
