ZOOLOGY. 
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generally at the head of large bands, on account of which the natives call them mee-oo-tees , or 
chiefs. The Indians say that they have suffered these disasters by falling back among the 
stones when coming up difficult places in the rapids which they pass.” 
The method of capturing salmon by “hooking” them, in the manner described by Dr. 
Cooper, is in vogue with the Indians of Puget Sound, who in this way take vast quantities of 
the autumnal species, which, as already stated, are fond of entering the more shallow streams. 
At the great Dalles fisheries on the Columbia I did not notice the disposition of the salmon 
to arrive in series according to age, but in June, 1855, I remarked, on the contrary, that vast 
numbers of fish of all sizes , varying from a pound and a half to 30 or 40 pounds, were taken 
promiscuously together. 
The question whether all individuals of certain species of salmon do not die in fresh water 
soon after spawning, none returning to the sea, is a mooted point on our northwestern frontier. 
Pallas, in speaking of certain of the salmon of Kamtschatka, takes particular pains to state 
that they do not return to salt water. Thus, in referring to the S. proteus , or hunchback, he 
says : “After the month of August has been passed in the functions of generation, all of these 
fishes perish in the rivers, and strew the land and the banks of the rivers with their dead 
bodies, none returning alive to the sea.”—(See Pallas Zoographica Rosso-Asiatica, Fishes , 
p. 377 ; also translation beyond under the head of S. gibber.) 
On this subject Dr. Scouler remarks as follows 
“Pennant says the Kamtschatka salmon die without returning to the sea after spawning. 
I never heard such an opinion mooted on the northwest coast, and saw nothing to confirm it; 
but, as the streams which the American salmon ascend are often extremely shallow, and as they 
spawn in Observatory inlet during the months of July and August, when the water is at the 
lowest, I should suppose that great numbers must perish from emaciation, (for their flesh then 
becomes white, or at least a great deal less red, and of bad quality,) and from the extreme 
difficulty they must experience in returning to the sea from the want of water, and perhaps 
from its high temperature. Thousands also must be devoured by the osprey, the white-headed 
eagle, and the otter, in the fresh waters, and by the seals in the sea, so that I should think few 
survive. I am unable, however, to say whether any return to the sea or not.” 
Since Dr. Scouler wrote, many white settlers have located themselves on the north Pacific 
coast of America, and large and flourishing settlements have grown up. In consequence, 
observation in all branches of natural history has been much extended, and our knowledge of 
that hitherto obscure region increased. It seems from the accounts of. recent observers that 
certain species of salmon do not, in general, return to the sea after spawning, but die in the 
fresh water streams remote from the ocean. Other species, on the contrary, seem to return to 
the sea, no matter to what distance in the interior they may have penetrated. Of course, in 
speaking of a species, we mean the bulk of individuals belonging to it, forming the “run” or 
migration. Of all kinds vast numbers die from exhaustion and the attacks of their various 
enemies, but certain species appear, as a rule, to die out after completing their procreative 
efforts, while the great number of individuals composing other species return to the sea. Some 
think that distance from salt water is the governing condition affecting the return. This it does 
to a certain degree, but still the individual instincts and tenacity of life of certain species have 
probably more to do in regulating it. Angus McDonald, who writes from the Kettle Falls, a 
point far up the Columbia, says that the see-met-leek (S. quinnat) are the first in the season “to 
*Scoulcr in lit. Rich. F. B. A., Ill, 159. 
