QUINNAT SALMON. 887 
usual in this genus, strongly forked, on a rather slender caudal peduncle ; flesh red and 
zich in spring, becoming paler inthe fall as the spawning season approaches; head 4; _ 
depth 44; B. 15-16 to 17-19, the number on the sides usualiy unlike; D. 11; A. 16; gill- 
rakers usually 9-14 (4. e., 9 above the angle and 14 below); pyloric cceca 140-160; scales 
usually 27-150-20, the number in a longitudinal series varying from 140-155, and in 
California specimens occasionally as low as 130-155. Length, 36 inches. Usual weight 
in the Columbia River 22 pounds, elsewhere 16-18 pounds, but individuals of 70 pounds 
have been taken. 
Habitat, Ventura River to Alaska and Northern China, ascending all large streams ; 
most abundant in the Columbia and Sacramento Rivers, where it is the principal Sal- 
mon. Upwards of 35,000,000 pounds are now takenevery spring in the Columbia River, 
most of them canned for exportation. It ascends the large streams in spring and sum- 
mer, moving up without feeding until the spawning season, by which time many of 
those which started first may have travelled nearly a thousand miles. After spawning, 
most of them in the upper waters perish from exhanstion. Ft is by far the most valua- 
ble of our Salmon. It has been introduced by the Fish Commission into many eastern 
streams. 
Diagnosis.—The Quinnat Salmon at any age, may be known at once from 
the Salmon and Trout native in the Great Lake Region, by the long anal 
fin, which contains about 16 developed rays. 
Hatits.—The following account of the habits of the Quinnat Salmon 
may be interesting in view of the attempts now being made to natura- 
_lize the species in Ohio waters. This account was originally written 
for the Popular Science Monthly and published (May, 1881, pp. 1-6) under 
the title of “Story of a Salmon :” 
“‘In the realm of the Northwest Wind, on the boundary-line between the dark 
fir-forests and the sunny plains, there stands a mountain, a great white cone two 
miles and a half in perpendicular height. On its lower mile, the dense fir-woods cover 
it with never-changing green; on its next half-mile, a lighter green of grass aud bushes 
gives place in winter to white; and, on its uppermost mile, the snows of the great Ice 
age still linger in unspotted purity. The people of Washington Territory say that this 
mountain is the great ‘‘ King-pin of the Universe,” which shows that, even in its own 
country, Mount Rainier is not without honor. 
‘Flowing down from the southwest slope of Mount Rainier is a cold, clear river fed 
by the melting snows of the mountain. Madly it hastens down over white cascades and 
beds of shining sands, through birch-woods and belts of dark firs to mingle its waters 
at last with those of the great Columbia. 
“This river is the Cowlitz, and on its bottom, not many years ago, there lay half- 
buried in the sand a number of little orange-colored globules, each about as large as a 
pea. Thee were not much in themselves, but, like the philosopher’s monads, each one 
had in it the promise and potency of an active life. In the water above them, little 
suckers and chubs and prickly sculpins were straining their mouths to draw those 
globules from the sand, and vicious-looking crawfishes picked them up with their blun- 
dering hands and examined them with their telescopic eyes. But one, at least, of the 
globules escaped their scientific curiosity, else this story would not be worth telling. 
‘The sun shone down on it through the clear water, and the ripples of the Cowlitz 
