ZOOLOGY. 
337 
Puget Sound in September, and continues arriving until near Christmas. During the months 
of January, February, and March, they are found abundantly in small shallow brooks and 
streams tributary to the larger rivers. At this late period they are much emaciated, owing to 
their exhaustion from breeding and from months of abstinence, they being said not to eat after 
entering fresh water; and their flesh, when cooked, is rank and ill-flavored. During the month 
of April they suddenly disappear, probably returning by the spring floods to salt water, although 
the Indians say that but few return to the sea.—(See General Remarks.) The flesh of this fish, 
when fresh from salt water, the individual being fat and in good condition, is of a very pale 
yellowish “salmon” color. This color soon changes into pinkish yellow, and, when the fish is 
worn out, to yellowish white. 
Under the head of S. Scouleri Dr. Cooper says: 
“I observed, in overhauling several hundreds of these salmon at different times, that they 
varied exceedingly in the form of their upper jaw and the size of their teeth, and came to the 
conclusion that those commonly distinguished as the ‘ dogmouth ’ were only very old specimens 
of the same. The amount of hooking of the nose seemed very much independent of size or 
season, but was found of every shade and degree in fish caught at the same time. 
“None, however, except those apparently full grown, showed it at all, and after attaining a 
length of four feet they show no other sign of increased age. 
“We found the same varieties in size and in the shape of the nose in salmon caught 350 
miles up the Columbia, at the mouth of the ‘Pisquouse’ river, though, as before mentioned, 
those seen in the Okanagan were all of smaller size.” 
Mr. George Gibbs, in speaking of the skowitz, (“skowquid,”) says: 
“This is the salmon that runs in such immense schools in the sound, and is caught and salted 
there. The head of this variety is narrower than that of the former, and it is taken in seines. 
Messrs. Swan & Riley have taken as many as 3,000 skowquid at one haul. The males have a 
somewhat crooked head and large teeth, the females fine wiry teeth. They last until the latter 
part of December, and are most numerous in the years when they arrive earliest.” 
A fish said by the Indians to be much like the skowitz, but fatter and of finer flavor, enters 
the sound in company with the latter species, but does not pass up further than Whidby’s 
island. It is called by the Skadgetts sky or slmi. 
Some remarks on the economic value of the S. Scouleri, compared with that of other kinds of 
western salmon, are included in the General Remarks of the present report. 
After carefully reading the notes by Dr. Scouler on the salmon of Observatory inlet, 
contained in Richardson’s work, I am convinced that the salmon there obtained is identical 
with the skowitz found on Puget Sound, and nearly related to, if not identical with, Dr. 
Gairdner’s ‘ 1 ekeivan. ’ ’ Some differences exist, however, between Dr. Gairdner’s statements 
regarding the latter fish and the information which I obtained concerning the skowitz. He says 
that the ekeivan “averages thirty pounds in weight.” Mr. Gibbs says “the skowitz averages 
six pounds.” My own impression is, that the male skowitz will average twelve pounds, and the 
females much less. 
The study of this particular species, or perhaps group, of salmon presents many points 
requiring further investigation. Although, as Dr. Scouler suggests, the S. Scouleri “comes 
nearest to the gorbuscka of Kamschatka, ” I do not by any means think them identical. If the 
gorbuscha is the same as any of our species frequenting the waters of Puget Sound or the 
Columbia, I think it will be found identical with the Salmo proteus of Pallas, described in this 
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