308 
ZOOLOGY. 
salting in Puget Sound is the Skowitz, an autumnal visitor. Of these, Messrs. Riley & Swan, 
proprietors of the salmon packing astablishment at the mouth of the Puyallup river, have taken 
3,000 at one haul of a seine ! The average weight of the species cannot be said to exceed 
twelve pounds, and is perhaps not greater than eight or ten. This size is very convenient for 
packing. 
This subject is more fully discussed in the pages devoted to the special consideration of the 
Salmonidae. 
1. Descriptions and history of the various species offish belonging to the salmon family , found in the 
waters of Oregon and Washington Territories. 
General remarks. —In the preparation of the following pages it has been attempted to 
collate from various sources all the useful facts known concerning the natural history and 
economic value of those species of the salmon group existing in the waters of our extreme 
northwestern Territories. Considerable additional information concerning the species recently 
described, drawn from the accounts of explorers, settlers, Indians, and others, has also been 
embodied. 
In the scientific determination of the different species, we have been fully aware of the 
difficulties and perplexities that surround the subject, and accordingly do not flatter ourselves 
that perfection has been arrived at, but simply offer the report as a stepping-stone to future 
knowledge. 
Owing to the paucity of the material at present furnished by the specimens of this particular 
group contained in the national collection, the • arrangement of different species of the family 
under the special generic divisions Fario and Salar has not been adhered to, but all the species 
have been temporarily retained under the genus Salmo. To separate the species we have into 
genera , from the distinctions afforded by the number and arrangement of the vomerine teeth 
and other anatomical characteristics, under the present circumstances, would be rash, and the 
classification thus furnished unreliable. 
It is hoped that at some future day, when the different kinds are better known and have 
been more thoroughly studied, that a sound classification may be founded on the anatomical 
characters of healthy , fresh-run adults. Too much confusion has been occasioned already by 
the description of new species founded on immature , ill-conditioned , or abnormal specimens, 
and by new genera and sub-genera based on the arrangement of such diverse and unsound 
material. 
Quite abundant as far south as San Franscisco, we find these fish, as we proceed north, 
increasing in species and in numbers, until, in arriving at the Columbia river, and at the rivers 
near Vancouver’s Island or the streams falling into Puget Sound, they form one of the most 
striking wonders of the region. There vast numbers of these fish differing in anatomical pecu¬ 
liarities, species, and color, and changing much with age, sex, and condition, season of the 
year, or quality of the water, astonish by their number, and confuse with their variety. 
From the vague and ill-determined characters separating the different species of Salmonidae , 
many of which, although obviously distinct from each other, yet approach in so many characters 
disagreeing only in shade and intensity, it is found extremely difficult to give a concise and 
striking summary of the leading characters of certain species, so that, by reading a short 
synopsis, an ordinary observer may readily define the position of a particular specimen. When, 
in addition to the difficulties found in identifying good typical specimens of the healthy fresli- 
tun adults , are added the perplexities caused by changes in age, sex, and condition, “confusion 
