342 
ZOOLOGY. 
and bodies become much bruised and injured, giving rise to sores and ulcerations. The fins 
become much worn also. The impoverished fish have hooked snouts and pale whitish flesh. 
At no time is it seen with th,e bright salmon-red flesh common to other kinds; but on the first 
arrival, when in good order, they are found with flesh which, when cooked, has a pinkish buff 
color, and is not, in my estimation, bad. 
Like several other species of salmon they are very regular in the periodical arrivals at the 
mouths of the rivers. In 1856 they arrived in the vicinity of Fort Steilacoom on the 3d of 
October, and by the 7th were in such vast numbers that a small boy, with a pole armed with a 
gaff hook, could readily take one or two hundred pounds weight in an hour. 
The Nisqually Indians say that these salmon, although entering fresh water later than the 
skowitz, (S. Scouleri,) return earlier, their stay being shorter. They state also that the greater 
number go back to the sea, after spawning, more than those of any other species of large 
salmon; the hunch-back all dying, and but few of the skowitz surviving. 
Mr. Gibbs says of this species: “The common dog-salmon is preferred by the Indians for 
drying, because there is but little fat upon it. It has a hooked nose, and very large hooked 
teeth, both increasing with age. When “fresh-run” the meat of the female is red, but soon 
becomes white. The Indians do not dry them until they have been in fresh water some time, 
and have lost what little fat they had. They arrive about October 1, and last until late in the 
winter. The Indians split them very thin, take out the back bone, and dry all parts.” 
3. SALMO SPECTABILIS, Grd. 
Red-Spotted Salmon Trout. 
Sp. Ch.—B ody sub-fusiform in profile, very much compressed, the head forming about the fourth of the total length. Max¬ 
illary bone curved, extending to a vertical line passing somewhat posteriorly to the entire orbit. Anterior margin of dorsal fin 
a hole nearer the extremity of the snout than the base of the caudal. Brownish gray above; silvery beneath. Dorsal region 
and upper portion of the flanks spread over with light spots ; those on the sides bright red, as in S. fontinalis . 
Syn. — Salmo spectabilis, Grd. in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc Phila. YiII, 1856, 218.— Ibid. Pacific R. R. Reports, Fishes, p. 307. 
Red-spotted salmon trout, Oregon settlers; pussutch, Nisqually; commahmah, Clallam. 
Dr. Girard says: “The only specimen which we have before us being in a rather precarious 
state of keeping, our description of the species must, of course, remain incomplete. All the 
fins being broken off from their very bases, the length and shape of the caudal could not be 
ascertained. The abdomen itself is ruptured, and all the viscera are lost.” 
As Dr. Girard suggests, the colors of this fish were very much altered by the preservative. 
The specimen upon which the specific characters of the species were based is, as yet, alone in 
the Smithsonian collection. It was obtained by me, in the year 1854, at Fort Dalles, Oregon, 
(not from the St. Mary’s Mission, as stated in the general report,) where the species is not 
uncommon.* It is said by the inhabitants to be more partial to particular streams, and to be 
quite plentiful in a small rivulet called Dog river, which, arising on the north side of Mount 
Hood, empties into the Columbia about ten miles below Fort Dalles. It comes late in the 
summer, and for this reason I suppose it to be anadromous. This is certainly the case if it is 
identical with the red-spotted salmon trout so abundant in the bays and rivers of Puget Sound 
in autumn, which is known to the Nisqually Indians as the pussutch, and is taken in moderate 
numbers throughout the summer, and in immense quantities in autumn. The colors of the 
species are, as near as I can remember, as follows: Back and upper parts pale brownish olive; 
* Many specimens of the pussutch were obtained by me at Fort Steilacoom, and forwarded to Washingon, but never reached 
their destination. 
