326 
ZOOLOGY. 
Sir John Richardson, in the addenda to the fishes in F. B. A., acknowledges the receipt of 
several specimens of three different kinds of trout from P. W. Dease, esq., taken in New Cale¬ 
donia, (British Columbia.) One named suppai, he says, “ resembles the young of ananadromous 
salmon. The scales are thin, flexible, and bright; the body is marked chiefly above the lateral 
line with scattered cruscial or crescentic black spots, and the dorsal and caudal are thickly dotted 
with oval blackish marks in rows.* The fins generally, but the under ones especially, are small, 
and the latter appear to have been of a pale hue. * * * The characters ascribed by Dr. 
Gairdner to the T> tsuppitch of the Columbia agreeing well with this fish, and the names being 
so similar, we may conclude that they are the same; and also that they belonged to the species 
named silvery-white salmon-trout by Lewis and Clark.” If it were not that Gairdner says dis¬ 
tinctly that the fins and tail of the T. tsuppitch are destitide of spots, I should think it very likely 
that the T. tsuppitch is the same as the suppai, perhaps the same as the silvery-white salmon- 
trout of Lewis and Clark, which, it is not unlikely, is that now known to the Oregon settlers as 
the '■'■white salmon although it may be the S. paucidens. There are, however, differences 
which cannot readily be explained between Lewis and Clark’s statements concerning the size 
and period of “season” of their white salmon-trout and Dr. Gairdner’s notes concerning the S. 
paucidens. Lewis and Clark state that its weight is “ ten pounds .” Gairdner’s S. paucidens 
“ has an average weight of three or four pounds.” Lewis and Clark say that their fish “ is in 
excellent order when the salmon are out of season.” Dr. Gairdner remarks that the S. paucidens 
“ is taken in company with the S. Gairdneri ” and “ the quinnat ,” (the common salmon of Lewis 
and Clark.) The white salmon of the settlers runs up the rivers much later in the season than 
the spring salmon noted by Dr. Gairdner, and, if my memory serves me, chooses the same 
month as the S. Scouleri; in this respect agreeing with the S. tsuppitch , which, according to Dr. 
Gairdner, ascends with the “ekewan,” ( S. Scouleri ?) 
The salmon described by Girard in the General Report on Fishes, Pacific Railroad Reports, 
vol. 10, page 312, as the Fario argyreus, Grd., may, perhaps, be the S. paucidens, Rich. It is 
an unspotted fish, vide Plate LXX, Fig. 1.—(See remarks beyond, under head of Salmo argyreus.) 
3. SALMO ARGYREUS, Grd. 
Plate LXX.—Gen. Rep. Fishes. 
Syn. “ Salmo argyreus, Grd.” [Mss.) Pacific R. R Rep Gen. Rep. Fishes, 1858, p. 312. 
Fario argyreus, Grd. Proc. A. N. Sc. Phil. VIII, 1856, 218. —Ib. Pacific R. R. Rep. vol. VT, Part IV, p. 32. 
As the description of this species given by Dr. Girard seems based on the characters of two 
young, partially grown fish, the specific characters thus deduced are probably much unlike those 
of the adult in good condition. For this reason no specific distinctions are given in this place; 
but, for the convenience of those interested in the subject, they are inserted in the accompany¬ 
ing note. 
My own specimen, marked 580, Smithson. Cat. Fishes, was caught at the mouth of Nisqually 
river, (emptying into Puget Sound near Steilacoom,) December 1, 1856. In my note book I 
find that its belly and sides were bright silvery; back and top of head silvery blue. Lateral 
line strongly defined. It was called by the natives satsup. 
George Gibbs, esq., in a letter to me, says: “ The satsup arrives at the mouth of the Puyallup 
about the end of December, and remains until spring. Towards that season, when the streams 
emptying into the sound are raised by the melting of the snow, the fish ascend them. This 
* In a foot note Richardson says : “In one specimen the spots on the fins are almost obsolete.’’ 
