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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1888)
520 THE WEST SHORE. seven pounds on the various streams &t the age of four jeara. The larger fish are those of more mature year, who have survived one spawning season, for it U a curious fact that nearly every salmon, both male and female, diet shortly after the act of spawning is completed. Were this not so, huge salmon would be more frequently caught, and, also, they would in creaae so rapidly as to literally 11 the sea, The Quin oat, whose scientific designations are salmo quinnat and (mchorynchu chonirha, is known in various locali ties by different titles. On the Sacramento it is called M California salm on," and on the Columbia it is called M Chinook," or 14 Royal Chinook," a name similar in idea to that of -King salmon," given it on the Yukon, where it also bears the Russian ti tle of "Chowecha," or "Tcbawytcha," In Era ser river it is designated by the Indian title of "Bah-kwey," and on Tu get sound it called "Col umbia river salmon," or MTye" (chief). Although the salmon procreates in fresh water, and there spends about one and one-half years of its lift, it is a salt water fish, and gets its growth in the unknown depths of the ocean. In fact, only in the deep sea docs it wax fat and grow, for the period of its life in the rivers, upon its return to them for spawning pur poses, is one of deteriora tion and final death, dur ing which period, quite often extending to seven months, it takes no food whatever. To this general rule there is an exception only in a few unimportant varieties. Besides the chinook salmon, there are nine distinct varieties in the Columbia, only three of which, the Blue Back (average weight five pounds), the Steel Head (five pounds), and the Weak Toothed (twelve pounds), have any commercial value, none of which approach the Chinook in quality, value or quantity. It is to the habits of this great fish and the methods of catching and marketing it, that this article is especially devoted. Ordinarily the hiatorr of an animal should begin at its birth, but it seejj better to take the Quinnat as he enters the river on his pilgrimage inland, and follow him, or his numej. ous progeny, until again lost in the limitless sea. Bi. ologists agree that the Chinook is four years of age when progenital promptings send him from his ocean home to the fresh waters of the interior. Where he has spent the period of his absence from his native waters, during which he has grown from a little saa. let six inches Ion? to t Ay ; -."' -T ' V-'- ! : . .y v v-:.;. : ' r ' .'.'' it - ' ' ji ' . V S', .. (X '- . CIUXOOK KAUOX. powerful fish weighing about twenty pounds, ii i question not yet settled. Deep sea fishing has sot revealed the ocean home of the salmon, hut Lis movements in fresh water have been carefully ob served, and have demon strated the fact that in the sea only does he eat and grow. In March the advance guard of Chi nooks makes its appear ance at the mouth of the Columbia, and seems to be in no haste to ascend the stream, spending sev eral weeks along the bor der line of fresh and salt water. When, at last, they commence their long journey, often extending inland more than a thou sand miles, they cease to take food, and from that time until their death, six or seven months later, sb stain from all nourish ment To this peculiari ty is attributed the fact of their death, for the in tense exertion required to surmount the obstacles encountered in their long journey up the river, and the injuries received by contact with rocks, so enfee ble and mangle them that they have not sufficient en ergy to attempt the return journey to salt water, w which element only can they find restoration. That this is a fact, and that millions of salmon die yearlf, their festering carcasses strewing the banks of the rivers and creek near the headwaters of the large streams, has been settled beyond dispute by the care ful observations of expert pisciculturists and others MA 43 LM.
