CUT-THROAT : clarkii (Richardson).

TAHOE TROUT: Salmo henshawi (Gill and Jordan).

CRESCENT TROUT: Salmo crescentis (Jordan and Seale). THE TROUT AND SALMON OF THE PACIFIC COAST

With Drawings from Nature by Sekko Shimada

By David Starr Jordan

TROUT It is now just a hundred original parentage, no doubt, was fron years ago that Meri- some sort of a land-locked salmon; their wether Lewis and Wil- original birthplace perhaps not a thousand liam Clark, encouraged miles from the Baltic Sea. Since that by Thomas Jefferson, time of their birthday, very long ago the Roosevelt of those trout have traveled up and down the riv- days, crossed the great ers, down into the sea and up another divide and explored the river, until they have reached from Scot- waters which we now call Columbia. land to Chihuahua, from Montana to the It was in the headwaters of the Co- Pyrenees, and whoever seeks them hon- lumbia that these explorers first met with estly anywhere in all this range shall find the true trout in America. William Clark, exceeding great reward. Whether he who was a judge of fine fishes, found it catches trout or not, it does not matter good, and thirty years later, when Sir he will be a better man for the breath John Richardson published his noble work of the forests and the wash of the moun- on the of the North, "Fauna- tain streams in which the trout makes its Boreali-Americana," he named this Co- home. lumbia River trout Salmo clarkii. CUT-THROAT TROUT. His specimens came from Astoria, Most primitive of the American spe- where they were collected by the enthusias- cies, no doubt, is the one named for Wil- tic surgeon-naturalist, Dr. Gairdner, then liam Clark. It was born in Alaska, and an employee of the great fur company, has worked its way southward and east- a man worthy of remembrance in the an- ward; southward as far as Eel Eiver in nals of the good men who knew fish. , eastward across the divide into The word trout is of French origin, Montana; no great task, for on the swampy truite in modern French, and still earlier flat of Two Ocean Pass the head-streams from the late Latin word Trutta, which of the Yellowstone interlock with those becomes Trucha in Spanish-speaking of the Snake. It runs southward through- countries. In Europe, the name trout in out the great basin of Utah, once tribu- all its forms is used for black-spotted tary to the Snake, and more or less fishes only, those with red spots, as we changed, its descendants have peopled the shall see later, being called by other Platte, the Arkansas, the Rio Grande and names. the Colorado. ' All the true trout have come to Ameri- The Clark trout is usually known as the ca from , and none have naturally Cut-throat trout, from the half-hidden crossed the great plains. For in the Great gash of deep scarlet which is always found Lake region, the Alleghanies and the val- just below the base of the lower jaw. This ley proper of the Mississippi the true trout gash of red is the sign manual of the are unknown. Sioux Indian, the Cut-throat among the But in Northern Europe, Siberia, fierce aborigines. Southern Alaska and throughout the This is the best mark of the Cut-throat Rocky Mountain region and the waters to trout, though it disappears in alcohol, the westward, trout are everywhere. Their and it is sometimes faintly shown in other THE PACIFIC MONTHLY. trout, especially in the large Rainbow been transplanted to waters other than trout of the Shasta region. Other marks those to which it is native. are the rather long h,ead, which forms TAHOE TROUT. nearly a fourth of the length of the body from the snout to the base of the caudal One of the most direct descendants of fin. Almost always there is a narrow line the Cut-throat trout is the Tahoe trout, of very slender teeth along the middle line which is confined to the streams and lakes of the base of the tongue, besides the of the desert of Nevada, the basin of the former Lake Lahontan. larger teeth which surround the edge of the tongue in all trout. The body is It is found in Lake Tahoe, where it was usually well spotted, and the spots are discovered by Dr. Henry W. Henshaw, small, there being none on the belly. But in 1877. It descends in the Truckee to no one can know a trout by its spots, be- Pyramid Lake, whence it comes in large cause the spots vary interminably. They numbers to the markets of San Fran- depend mostly on the character of the cisco. It is found also in Donner, Web- water. In the lakes they grow faint, and ber and Independence Lakes. It is found in the sea they vanish altogether, giving also in the Carson and the Humboldt,— place to a uniform silvery sheen. This is both once tributaries of the vanished true of all trout alike, American, Asiatic, glacial lake called Lahontan. From the and European. The color of the flesh Truckee it has been introduced into the varies equally. It seems to depend partly Feather, the Stanislaus and the Moke- on age, partly on the food. A diet of lumne, on the western slope of the Sierras. shrimps turns the flesh red, it is said, The Tahoe trout is plainly a Cut-throat, but the statement needs proving. The having the same red dashes under the size of trout varies as much as the color. throat, the same long head, small scales A species which is mature and spawns at and teeth on the base of the tongue. It six inches in the mountain brooks, may is, however, browner or yellower in color, reach a weight of ten or even twenty and the spots are always larger, covering pounds when taken in the sea. Whatever the belly as well as the back of the fish. food the fishes can get, they will turn The Tahoe trout usually weighs, when into trout, and the trout which cannot mature, two or three pounds, but in the get much are just as perfect as the others. depths of Lake Tahoe huge specimens The best mark of the Cut-throat trout weighing from seven to twenty-eight is found in the small scales. In a row pounds have been sometimes taken. from head to tail you will count from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and Those large trout called the eighty. of Lake Tahoe (Salmo tahoensis) are sup- posed to spawn in the lake, and thus to The Cut-throat trout spawns in the form a subspecies more or less distinct spring. Those in the streams run up the from those which spawn in the brooks. smaller brooks, while those in the sea or As a food or as a , the Tahoe the lakes seek shallower waters, either a trout is scarcely different from the ordi- stream or a sandbar in the lake. No trout nary Cut-throat of the Columbia. ever spawns in the sea. The Cut-throat CRESCENT TROUT. trout is hardy and vigorous, but its de- gree of energy depends on the character Of the many long-headed trout more or less allied to Salmo clarkii, two are of the streams. A trout in warm water especially interesting to the angler, the anywhere usually shows little fight. In Crescent trout and the Beardslee trout. the lakes, the Cut-throat rises to the Both are found only in the deep glacial spoon or the phantom minnow. In the lake in Clallam County, Washington, brooks, a fly, a grasshopper, or a bunch known as Crescent Lake. The Crescent of salmon eggs will usually engage its at- trout is a fine game fish, reaching a tention. This species is the most widely weight of eight to ten pounds. It is very distributed of the trout. It is one of the deep steel-blue in color, with fine specks handsomest and finest, yet it has rarely and without red at the throat. The scales THE TROUT AND SALMON OF THE PACIFIC COAST.

BEARDSLEE TROUT : Salmo beardsleii (Jordan and Seale). are as small as those of the Steelhead, but the Bainbow trout, about one hundred and the head is not short. thirty in a lengthwise series, and the BEARDSLEE TROUT. head is long, making more than one-fourth the total length to the base of the caudal. In Crescent Lake, Admiral Beardslee This is one of the finest trout known in also discovered the Beardslee trout, to any country, and it should be planted in

YOUNG STEELHEAD TROUT. which his name has been given. It is other deep lakes before it is exterminated found in deeper water than the Crescent by the trout-hog, who is already encamped trout, and it is larger, some specimens on the shores of Lake Crescent. weighing from ten to fourteen pounds. Another trout has been described from Its color is deep blue, dotted with small Lake Crescent as Salmo bathaecetor black spots. The scales are as large as in (Meek). It is certainly much like the

ADULT STEELHEAD TROUT: Salmo rivularis (Ayres). THE PACIFIC MONTHLY. Crescent trout, of which it would seem to water the spots appear, and in the be a deep-water variation. Near to Lake small streams it is almost as much spot- Crescent, but wholly separated from it, is ted as the . It reaches a another mountain lake called Lake South- weight of sixteen to twenty pounds. From erland. In this lake two other species the market point of view, the Steelhead or forms of trout are found, the one is the most important of American trout, called Salmo jordani being close to Salmo being, usually, the largest and one of those clarkii, the other Salmo declivifrons, re- most easily reared artificially. It is a sembling Salmo crescentis. Doubtless fine game fish, taking the hook freely other mountain lakes of the Olympic and vigorously. The large trout of Fraser ramge will yield still other species of River, known as Stitse, or Kamloops trout isolated from the body of their kind trout, is a Steelhead. It probably re- and at least on the road to becoming sides in the large lakes of Washington separate species. The origin of each of and British Columbia, never descending the different species of trout is clearly to to the sea. be traced to the condition of isolation. There has been much discussion as to whether the Steelhead is a species really STEELHEAD TROUT. distinct from the Rainbow trout, and on In the coastwise streams from Skag- this question the writer has at different way, in Alaska, to Santa Barbara, Cali- times held different opinions. fornia, is found a fine, large trout, known Very careful comparison of specimens as the Steelhead, its scientific name being leaves no doubt that the two are distinct. Salmo rivularis. This name was given The Steelhead usually is slenderer than by Dr. W. 0. Ayres to a specimen taken the Rainbow trout, less spotted, has less in the Sacramento River, at Martinez. red on the side, and reaches a larger size. The species was long known as Salmo But these distinctions are all deceptive. gairdneri, but the specimen originally The best characteristic of all is the short named by Dr. Richardson for Dr. Gaird- head, shorter in proportion than in any ner was a young Blueback salmon, and not other trout. The head, as in fishes gen- a trout. The Steelhead is sometimes erally, is proportionately shorter in the called Salmon trout, and this name is not adult than in the young. inappropriate. The Salmon trout of England is, however, merely a sea-run The dorsal fin of the Steelhead is never, example of the European , or in my experience, as large or as much , Salmo eriox, a species which spotted as in the Rainbow trout, or even is also called in the books Salmo fario as in the Cut-throat trout. The scales and Salmo trutta. are always larger than in the Rainbow, and smaller than in the Cut-throat. By From the other trout, the Steelhead these marks even young fish, like the one is best known by its short head, the length represented in our figure, can be readily of the head along the side being con- distinguished. The Steelhead finds its tained four and one-half to five times center of distribution in the Columbia. in the length of the body from the tip The Kamchatka trout, Salmo mykiss, of the snout to the base of the caudal fin. which we once wrongly supposed to be The scales in the Steelhead are rather the same as the Cut-throat trout, is more small, averaging about one hundred and like the Steelhead. fifty in a lengthwise series from head to tail. The dorsal fin is low, and it has RAINBOW TROUT. usually but three or four rows of dark The trout par excellence of California, spots. There are no teeth on the base found in almost every permanent brook, of the tongue, the usual series lying is the one to which I gave, in 1878, the around the outer edge. name of rainbow trout, this name being The Steelhead trout does not go very a translation of Salmo iridia, given it in far from the sea, except in the large riv- 1854 by Dr. W. P. Gibbons, of Alameda. ers, its habits in this regard being more Gibbons wrote the name "iridia,' and like the salmon than those usual among perhaps that form of the word ought to trout. The old fishes do not, however, stand, but irideus, as it is usually spelled, die after spawning. When in salt water, is better Latin. Gibbons' specimens came the Steelhead is very silvery, but in fresh from San Leandro Creek, near Alameda. THE TROUT AND SALMON OF THE PACIFIC COAST.

RAINBOW TROUT. SPECIMEN SHOWING RIVER COLORATION ; FROM MC LEOD RIVER, CALIFORNIA.

RAINBOW TROUT: Salmo iridia (Gibbons). SEA-RUN SPECIMEN FROM SAN FRANCISQUITO CREEK.

The Rainbow trout has larger scales the streams in March to spawn, like a than the others, usually one hundred and salmon, being able to leap over small twenty-five to one hundred and thirty, waterfalls. in a lengthwise row. The dorsal fin is The Rainbow on the whole is probably high, having usually seven to ten rows of the gamiest of the trout, taking a fly black spots. The old males show a good eagerly and responding also to the lure deal of bright red along the side. There of a grasshopper or a salmon egg. The are no teeth on the middle line of the range of the Eainbow trout extends south- tongue. The head is larger than in any ward to San Luis Eey Eiver in Southern other of these trout, its length being California and even across the Mexican contained from three and one-half to four line into Lower California. Perhaps even times in the length of the body, measured more than any other trout this species along the side from the tip of the snout varies with its surroundings. to the base of the caudal fin. There is usually no red behind the lower jaw, al- OREGON BROOK TROUT. though in large fishes of the upper Sier- In Oregon and Washington there is a ras this shade sometimes appears. In trout which is scarcely distinguishable little streams the Eainbow is mature at from the Rainbow trout. It reaches, how- six inches, but in" larger streams and in ever, so far as we know, only a small the estuaries it reaches a weight of six to size. We have seen none weighing a eight pounds. pound. The mouth is smaller than any Brook specimens are usually most pro- other of our trout, and the dorsal fin is fusely spotted, but in the sea these spots less spotted than in the true Rainbow. are more or less obscured by a silvery This dainty and gamy little trout was sheen. In coastwise streams it runs up first taken in the Cathlapootl River by THE PACIFIC MONTHLY. General George B. McClellan. Dr. Suck- noon, leaving four hundred and fifty lying ley named it Salmo masoni. on the bank. Two other idiots at the KERN RIVER TROUT. same time caught two hundred in an after- noon. In the Kern, Kings, Merced and other rivers of the southern portion of the Sier- The interest attached to this wonder- ra Nevada the Eainbow trout have much ful trout, interesting alike to the angler, smaller scales than in the coastwise the artist and the man of science, led streams. About one hundred and sixty- President Roosevelt to arrange for a com- five scales form lengthwise series. Un- plete exploration of its haunts. In 1904, like the true Rainbow trout, this form, B. W. Evermann, of the Bureau of Fish- named for its discoverer, Dr. Charles H. eries, Professors 0. P. Jenkins and R. L. Gilbert, has always a white tip to the Green, of Stanford University, and Pro- dorsal fin, and there is generally some fessor Juday, of the University of orange under the lower jaw. In the lakes Chauncy, Colorado, with volunteer and as Kern Lake, this species reaches a other assistants, made a complete survey weight of eight to ten pounds. In the of the waters inhabited by the Golden mountain brooks it is very much smaller, trout. The report of this work is not yet published, but it is understood that be- but everywhere it is active, vigorous and sides the original species of Golden trout, gamy. two others equally beautiful were found, GOLDEN TROUT OF MOUNT WHITNEY. each isolated in a particular stream at The most beautiful of all our trout is the head of Kern River, each being shut the dainty little fish called Golden trout, off from the main body of Kern River found in Volcano Creek, on the flanks trout by a waterfall. of Mount Whitney, the highest peak in How these fishes came to be above the the United States. This clear little waterfall no one knows. For in the Sier- stream flows shallow and open, over rocks ras, as in the mountains generally, there of orange-colored granite, or quartzite, are no fish above the falls until some and the trout which are separated from man helps them up. Indians do not often the main body of Kern Eiver by a high do this. Volcanic or earthquake disturb- waterfall called Aqua Bonita, have taken ances create dams and change currents. on the color of the rocks on which they They may make in time a cataract out of lie. a rapid. Anyhow, these exquisite trout With the general characters of the Kern are found above the falls, and while there River trout, Salmo gilberti, from which they have changed their color to match these dainty fishes are plainly descended, the bottom over which they live. the Golden trout has the body largely How do they do this? We know of golden-yellow, with a scarlet stripe along only one way, and that is not yet proved. the middle of the side, while the lower We suppose that the scarlet, orange and fins are bright orange. There is a white golden colors of the rocks below were dash on the front of the dorsal fin, as in transferred to the trout by natural selec- Salmo gilberti. The scales are equally tion. These tributaries of the Kern at small, one hundred and sixty to one hun- timber line are shallow, open and exposed dred and eighty in a lengthwise series, and to the attacks of kingfishers, fishhawks, they are so little developed that they fishducks and the like birds which are scarcely overlap. fond of little fishes, and which know how The Golden trout rarely reach a foot to capture them. Any trout brought in length. ' They are extremely gamy, into exposed water turns pale as com- taking the fly or the bait with the great- pared with his colors in a dark pool. est readiness. They are hence in immi- This is not a real change in color, but nent danger of utter extermination, be- a change in the tension at which the fish cause the trout hog, the most vulgar of holds his scales. All trout show some all beasts of prey, has already invaded the reddish shades on body or fins. Those Kern Valley, and boasts of his great which show most red on a red ground catches of this unsuspecting and defense- were most likely to escape from the birds. less little trout. Only yesterday I heard Those darkest in shade, most brown or of one assemblage of cads from San Fran- green, were the ones likely to be taken cisco who caught six hundred in one after- first. They are of the usual trout color, THE TROUT AND SALMON OF THE PACIFIC COAST.

OREGON BROOK TROUT: Salmo masoni (Suckley). the color the birds perhaps expect, and fornia, or anywhere else, a red bottom they are most easily seen against the produces red fish. And the rocks and background of the red rocks. This ex- the fish do not use the same chemicals in planation of the Golden trout and of the producing this result. reasons why three parallel species of this All these species, the Cut-throat trout,

GOLDEN TROUT: Salmo aquabonita (Jordan). type have arisen under parallel condi- the Steelhead trout, and the Eainbow tions may or may not be satisfactor}^ but trout, with their several allies and de- it is the only one yet suggested. We can- scendants, are true trout, belonging to not think of any other explanation. It the genus Salmo, and all of them are is certain that in some fashion in Cali- dwarfed representatives of the salmon of

DOLLY VARDEN TROUT: malma (Walbaum). THE PACIFIC MONTHLY. the Atlantic. All of them have silvery spots of crimson on its sides and over its scales; all are black spotted; all have the back, while its fins are trimmed in front, anal fin short, with but ten, eleven or as in chars generally, with crimson and twelve developed rays. All are likely to white. The Dolly Varden is found in the run down into the sea if they can, and Me Cloud and other tributaries of the Up- into little streams to spawn, their eggs per Sacramento. It is more plentiful in ripening in the spring or summer. the Upper Columbia, always in cold, There is not much difference between clear waters. It is still more abundant males and females. The old males have in all the shorewise streams of Alaska the jaws lengthened a little, but never and across the to the hooked, as in the Pacific salmon. The coast of Kamchatka, and it is equally same fish may spawn a number of times, plentiful in Northern Japan. From Puget while with the Pacific salmon, a fish Sound northward it runs down to the sea, spawns but once, dying in a week or so where it loses its spots and becomes nearly after casting the eggs or the milt. plain silver-gray. In Alaska it is called In Europe the name trout is given only Salmon trout; in Washington, , to the black-spotted forms, which, to- but the name Dolly Varden can be used gether with the , Salmo anywhere. salar, constitute the genus Salmo. Its size depends on its food. It may To the very fine-scaled, red-spotted weigh, when mature, anywhere from six forms of the cold streams and Alpine ounces to twelve pounds. The little ones lakes, constituting the genus Salvelinus, are brightest in color. In the little brook the people of England have always given which falls into Captain's Harbor at Una- the name of char. The char of Europe, laska are multitudes of bright little Dolly known in Germany as "Saibling," and in Vardens, mature at six inches. In the France as "Ombre Chevalier," is in science harbor below the falls are plenty of sea- Salvelinus alpinus. run fishes of the same sort weighing Closely related to this char of Europe ten pounds. In Kodiak the Dolly Varden are two or three species found in Canada, is caught in the seine by the ton and and the Northeast. The Eastern "brook thrown away by the salmon fishermen. trout," or "speckled trout," the trout of The Dolly Varden is much more vora- our fathers and grandfathers, is a char, cious than the true trout. In the Alaska Salvelinus fontinalis. There is no higher streams they devour millions of salmon praise to be given to any trout-like fish eggs, as well as young salmon. It is the than to say that it is a char. In strict greatest enemy the salmon breeder finds. truth, there is no trout to be found in It is gamy and vigorous, takes the hook the "United States or Canada, east of the freely, with a fly, an insect, a salmon egg great plains, except where the Eainbow or a scarlet petal from some mountain trout or the brown trout of Europe, or flower. some other of their kind, has been planted. It is a good food fish. All trout are that; some perhaps better, but I cannot , OR MALM A. see much choice. In Kamchatka the Dolly The Pacific slope has one char, the Varden is baked in pies, "deep pies," like Molina, or Dolly Varden. known in science those sold in English eating houses, and as Salvelinus malma. In 1878, when the in that form they are surely good. To the present writer first tried to classify these trout-hog the Dolly Varden can be Western trout, a specimen of this malma strongly commended, for it swarms in was sent in from the Upper Soda Springs, millions in every Alaska stream (the Yu- on the Sacramento Eiver, near the foot kon and its tributaries excepted). It will of Mount Shasta. The landlady at the take the hook cheerfully, even dutifully. Soda Springs said of it: "Why, that is a I once saw two Dolly Varden caught with regular Dolly Yarden!" So Professor a pin-hook, which a little girl let down Baird said to me: "Why not call it Dolly through a knot hole into the gutter on Varden trout" And Dolly Varden trout a street in Skagway. And of the thou- it has remained to this day. sands there is not one that would ever be As it appears in the rivers, the Dolly missed, for each one which is killed saves Varden is one of the most beautiful of ail the life of a dozen salmon. trout. Dark steel-blue above, with round The trout of the Yukon'is the Mack- THE TEOUT AND SALMON OF THE PACIFIC COAST. inaw, or Great , Cristivomer it to the true angler. And the true angler namaycush, another kind of char, which is not the one who loves to fish, or who reaches a great size, and is known by its catches fish, or catches many fish, or many cream-color spots. These are never red large fish. The true angler is one who as in the true char. This char is found loves fish well enough to know one kind also in various lakes of British Colum- from another. "It is good luck to any bia, but it does not enter the United States man," so Izaak Walton tells us, "to be to the westward of Lake Superior and on the good side of the man that knows Lake Michigan. And so it does not be- fish." And to that man this little sketch, long in the list of trout of our Pacific with its pictures from the deft hand of Coast. the Japanese artist, Sekko Shimada, is But with all the rest we may commend dedicated. SALMON.

The name salmon is given in England greatly in color and looks, the scales sink and all Eastern States to a large, trout- into the spongy skin, and so different are like fish which lives in the sea, chiefly these spawning fishes from the same fishes about the mouths of rivers, and which en- in the spring that no one would suspect ters the streams to spawn, running for a them to belong to the same species. Tech- considerable distance up the stream nically, all the species of and returning to the sea after the may be known by the presence of more act of spawning is accomplished. The than twelve developed rays in the anal old * males become somewhat distorted, fin, and more than twelve branchiostegal especially through the lengthening of rays on each side underneath the gill the jaws, but the changes with age covers. They all spawn in cooling water, and season are not much greater than in the fall. The young descend the next in any large trout. The true salmon, spring to the sea. They feed only in salt like the true trout, is black spotted. It water, and after about four years (some- is called in science Salmo solar, and along with the true trout it belongs to the genus times three, or two) they re-enter the Salmo. There is but one species of At- river to cast their spawn and die. The lantic salmon; it is found on both sides old salmon never feed in fresh water. of the ocean, and on both sides it be- The different species have different hab- comes, sometimes, land-locked and dwarf- its. It is clear that the habit of running ish when it is shut up in a lake and when is a very old one. I have received from it cannot or does not go to the sea. Dr. John C. Merriam, of the University In the North Pacific, on both coasts, of California, fragments of spawning there are five different species of fishes salmon jaws embedded in rock about the called salmon. They do not belong to the Postpliocene lakes of Idaho. genus Salmo, but to a peculiar group The largest and finest salmon is the called Oncorhynchus, or hook-snout. In Chinook, Quinnat, or King Salmon, all the species of Oncorhynchus, every in- known in science as Oncorhynchus dividual, large or small, old or young, tschawytscha. This salmon is the com- male or female, dies after the act of mon salmon of the Sacramento and Co- spawning is completed. All the tissues lumbia Eivers. As a food fish it is the of the body become degenerate, the muscle best of all its tribe, and in size, when full is as dead as a dead cornstalk, and when grown, it ranges from fifteen to one the eggs, or the milt, are deposited, all life hundred pounds. processes are at a standstill. This in itself It spawns in the fall, in snow-fed riv- distinguishes Oncorhynchus from Salmo. ers, and as it ascends Very far, it leaves Other characteristics are the great the sea early, at the time of spring fresh- elongation of the jaws in the old males, ets. Up the Yukon it runs as far as which are hooked over at the tip, and Caribou Crossing, 2,250 miles; up the on which the front teeth become greatly Columbia and Sacramento to their very enlarged. The spawning fish change headwaters. This species is the chief THE PACIFIC MONTHLY.

CHINOOK, QUINNAT OR KING SALMON: Oncorhyucus tsawyticlia (Walbaum).

BLUEBACK OR RED SALMON: Oncorhyncus nerka (Walbaum). ADULT MALE. stay of the canning industry south of Bay, Eed salmon run in numbers literally . Its value, commercially, fabulous. There are many in the Colum- far exceeds that of any other fish of the bia. They run with the Chinook salmon, Pacific, the red salmon excepted. but sometimes when a stream forks each The' Blueback salmon, Alaska red salmon goes its way, the Chinook to the salmon, or Sukkegh ("Sock-eye"), On- snow-fed branches, the Eed salmon to corhynchus nerka, is even more valuable the head of the lakes. The distance from in the aggregate, for it runs in countless the sea is immaterial. At Boca de Quadra, millions in Alaska. But it is a smaller in Alaska, the river from the lake to the fish, the average being six to ten pounds. sea is not ten rods long, yet it is crowded Its flesh is drier, redder and coarser. with Eed salmon. In the Yukon, the In the sea, and in the early runs, its Eed salmon range up the river to Lake body is bright metallic blue in color, Labarge, the first lake, about eighteen with white belly, unspotted. Later, the hundred miles. body turns crimson red, while the head The Silver salmon (Oncorhynchus takes a shade of olive green. The names millets chit ch) is of about the same size Blueback and Eed salmon are both ap- as the Eed salmon, and of much the same propriate, according to the season. The grade as food. It is faintly spotted, the Eed salmon spawn's only in streams which flow into lakes. A stream without a lake top of the dorsal fin is blackish. Its never has Eed salmon. Hence there are scales are less fine than in the Eed salmon none in the Sacramento or Eogue Eivers. and more lustrous, and it does not turn In the lake-fed Fraser Eiver, in the Kar- red in the summer. luk Eiver, and in the rivers about Bristol This species abounds all along the shore, THE TROUT AND SALMON OF THE PACIFIC COAST. especially northward. It runs but a short mostly from the Humpback salmon, the distance to spawn—rarely over a . mile. body of the fish being thrown away. In For this reason it cannot easily be taken actual food value, the five species stand in large numbers. Its flesh is much paler in this order: Chinook, Silver, Eed, than in the King salmon, or the Bed Humpback, Dog. In economic impor- salmon, hence, notwithstanding its excel- tance: Eed, Chinook, Humpback, Silver, lence, it brings a lower price when canned. Dog. In the United States, outside of It is then sold as Coho, or as medium Alaska, the Chinook far outvalues all the Eed. rest. But in Alaska and British Colum- The Dog salmon or Calico salmon (On- bia, the Eed salmon greatly predominates. corhynchus keta) has much the same hab- In Japan, only the Dog salmon and Silver its, and it is common along shore from salmon are commonly seen, the first far San Francisco northward. It is the prin- in excess of the second. cipal salmon of Japan, being salted in As a food fish, the Chinook salmon is great numbers and sold under the name finer and larger than the salmon of of Sake. Its flesh is very pale and mushy, Europe. The latter, however, ranks with almost worthless when canned, but bet- our Steelhead trout, as superior to the ter when salted. Many are frozen and Eed salmon and perhaps to the Silver sent to the Eastern markets. The Dog salmon also. salmon, as the season goes on, becomes irregularly cross-barred with blackish All the salmon take the hook in the streaks, by which marks it can be gen- sea, and are fairly gamy. In the rivers, erally told from the others. they will sometimes snap at a hook, baited or not, but never for the purpose of feed- The Humpback salmon (Oncorhynchus ing. They strike at it as though it were gorbuscha) has much smaller scales than an annoyance, but they could not swal- the others. It reaches a smaller size low it, as after the spawning season the (three to six pounds), and it may be stomach shrinks away till it is little larger known by the large black spots on its than a cherry. back and tail. It is rarely seen in Cali- fornia, but from Puget Sound northward With the Chinook salmon is seen the it is found in unnumbered myriads about greatest triumph of fish hatching. Now the mouth of every stream. It spawns that the spawning grounds of the species near the sea and in any kind of fresh in the Sacramento have been nearly all water. Its flesh is wholesome, but with- destroyed, the fish hatcheries turn mil- out fine flavor, and it is of a faded brown- lions of young fish into the rivers, after ish color, instead of salmon red. It is having led them past the period of great- largely canned under the name of Pink est destruction from their enemies. But salmon. It sells for about half the price more salmon run in the Sacramento now of the Eed salmon, and is worth still less. than in the days when there was no fish- Its value, at the best, is little more than ing and no mining. the cost of canning, though, as already With the same treatment, the over-fish- stated, as food it is quite wholesome, and ing .of the Columbia, the Fraser, and the doubtless as nourishing as the species streams of Alaska, could be met and one which taste better and look better. Salted of the best forms of food would continue salmon bellies, as prepared in Alaska, are to be one of the cheapest.