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Blueback Salmon; Sockeye Salmon — Part 2
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The dying of the West Coast salmon is in no manner determined by distance from the sea. Observations made by us and others elsewhere show that the individuals of all the species of Oncorhynchus die after once spawning, whether the spawning-beds be remote from the sea or only a short distance from salt water. The cause of the dying is deep-seated in its nature and general in its application. The cause is the same as that which compasses the death of the ephemera or may-fly after an existence of but a few hours, or of the corn-plant or melonvine and all annual plants at the end of one season.
This species, known locally as benimasu or red salmon, is landlocked in a few lakes (Akan, etc.) in Nemuro, in northern Japan, but it is rare on the Asiatic side south of Kamchatka.
Head 4; depth 4; D. 11; A. 14 to 16; scales 20-133-20; Br. 13 to 15; gillrakers 32 to 40, usually 14 or 15+22 or 23, as long as eye; pyloric coeca 75 to 95; vertebrae 64; snout 2 1/4 in head in fall males, 3 1/2 in females; mandible 1 1/3 in head in fall males, 1 3/4 in females. Body long, elliptical, rather slender; head short, snout long, pointed, sharply conic, the lower jaw included; maxillary rather thin and small, reaching beyond eye; teeth all quite small, most of them freely movable; vomer with about 6 weak teeth which grow larger in spawning males; preopercle very wide and convex; opercle very short, not strongly convex; preopercle more free behind than in the chinook salmon; ventral scale about 1/2 length of fin; caudal fin narrow, widely forked; anal fin long and low; dorsal low; flesh deep red; males becoming extravagantly hook-jawed in the fall, the snout being then much prolonged and much raised above the level of rest of head, the lower jaw produced to meet it. Colour, clear bright blue above; side silvery, this overlapping the blue of the back; lower fins pale, the upper dusky; no spots anywhere on adults in spring; the young with obscure black spots above. Colour of breeding male, dark blood red on back and sides, with dark edges to some of the scales; middle of side darker red, but unevenly so, usually darkest at middle of body; under parts dirty white, with numerous fine dark dustings; entire head light olive, tip of nose and sides of jaws dark; under part of lower jaw white; dorsal fin pale red, anal darker red; adipose fin red; ventrals and pectorals smoky, somewhat red at base. Colour of breeding female, essentially the same, but rather darker on the sides.
The small form of redfish is a rich metallic blue on the back, becoming silvery on the lower sides and under parts; back with a few small black spots. During the breeding season it becomes a dirty red, brightest on the middle of the sides; under parts dirty white; top and sides of head dark greenish olive; snout black; lower jaw white, black at tip; dorsal pale red; anal dirty red; other fins dark smoky. The female is darker than the male and not greatly different in colour from the black-speckled trout.
GENUS SALMO (ARTEDI) LINNAEUS
The Salmon and Trout
Body elongate, somewhat compressed; mouth large; jaws, palatines, and tongue toothed, as in related genera; vomer flat, its shaft not depressed, a few teeth on the chevron behind which is a somewhat irregular single or double series of teeth, which in the migratory species are usually deciduous with age; scales large or small, 100 to 200 in a longitudinal series; dorsal and anal fins short, usually with 10 to 12 rays each; caudal fin truncate, emarginate or forked, its peduncle comparatively stout; sexual peculiarities variously developed, the males in typical species with the jaws prolonged and the front teeth enlarged, the lower jaw being hooked upward and the upper and the upper jaw emarginate or perforate; these peculiarities most marked in the larger and migratory species.
The species of this genus are of moderate or large size, black-spotted, and abounding in the colder creeks, rivers and lakes of North America, Europe, and Asia; no purely freshwater species occurring in America east of the Great Plains; 3 Atlantic Coast species, one marine and anadromous.
The non-migratory species (sub-genus Trutta) occur in both continents, are extremely closely related and difficult to distinguish, if, indeed, all be not necessarily regarded as forms of a single exceedingly unstable, and variable species. The excessive variations in colour and form have given rise to a host of nominal species.
European writers have described numerous hybrids among the various species of Salmo, real or nominal, found in their waters. We have thus far failed to find the slightest evidence of any hybridism among American Salmonidae in a state of nature. Puzzling aberrant or intermediate individuals certainly occur, but such are not necessarily "hybrids".