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Inconnu — Part 4
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It is the prevailing impression that the salmon have some special instinct which leads them to return to spawn on the same spawning grounds where they were originally hatched. We fail to find any evidence of this in the case of the Pacific Coast salmon, and we do not believe it to be true. It seems more probable that the young salmon hatched in any river mostly remain in the ocean within a radius of 20, 30 or 40 miles of its mouth. These, in their movements about in the ocean, may come into contact with the cold waters of their parent river, or perhaps of any other river, at a considerable distance from the shore. In the case of the quinnat and the blueback, their "instinct" seems to lead them to ascend these fresh waters, and, in a majority of cases, these waters will be those in which the fishes in question were originally spawned. Later in the season the growth of the reproductive organs leads them to approach the shore and search for fresh waters, and still the chances are that they may find the original stream. But undoubtedly many fall salmon ascend, or try to ascend, streams in which no salmon were ever hatched. In little brooks about Puget Sound, where the water is not 3 inches deep, are often found dead or dying salmon, which have entered them for the purpose of spawning. It is said of the Russian River and other California rivers, that their mouths in the time of low water in summer generally become entirely closed by sand bars, and that the salmon in their eagerness to ascend them frequently fling themselves entirely out of water on the beach. But this does not prove that the salmon are guided by a marvellous geographical instinct which leads them to their parent river in spite of the fact that the river can not be found. The waters of Russian River soak through these sand bars, and the salmon instinct, we think, leads them merely to search for fresh waters. This matter is in much need of further investigation; at present, however, we find no reason to believe that the salmon enter the Rogue River simply because they were spawned there, or that a salmon hatched in the Clackamas River is more likely on that account to return to the Clackamas than to go up the Cowlitz or the Des Chutes.
Commercially speaking the Pacific salmon are unquestionably the most valuable fish in the world.
The market value of the entire salmon catch on our west coast, including Alaska, exceeds $13,000,000 annually, and this vast amount is represented chiefly by the 2 species, the chinook and blueback, the catch of the 3 other species being in comparison insignificant.
No other fish is so extensively canned or is held in such high esteem.
a. Gillrakers 20 to 25, comparatively short and few.
b. Scales very small, more than 200 in a longitudinal series; caudal spots large, oblong; ..........gorbuscha
bb. scales medium, 138 to 155 in longitudinal series; pyloric coeca about 150.
c. Anal rays 13 or 14; black spots small or obsolete; branchiostegals 13 or 14; ........keta
cc. Anal rays about 16; back and upper fins with round black spots; branchiostegals 15 to 19; ........tschawytscha
bbb. Scales comparatively large, 125 to 135 in longitudinal series, pyloric coeca 50 to 80; ..........kisutch
aa. Gillrakers comparatively long and numerous, 30 to 40 in number; scales large; lateral line about 130; back in adult usually unspotted; clear blue in spring, red in fall; young more or less spotted; .......nerka