Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/173

Rh carries the changes due to the spawning period to an extravagant degree, being hook-jawed, hump-shouldered and distorted more excessively than any other species.

The humpback is the most abundant of the salmon among the Alaskan Islands. It exists in millions, it swarms everywhere in waters near the sea, breeding in brooks, lakes, swamps and brackish estuaries—anywhere where a little fresh water can be found. It runs for a slight distance, and does not go far from the shore. From its great abundance and the ease by which it is taken in nets, this species is exceedingly cheap in Alaska, the individuals costing about a cent apiece. In the large rivers, the humpback rarely runs. It is therefore almost unknown in the Sacramento, the Columbia and even the Eraser River. Small rivers which do not rise in lakes are often crowded with humpbacks. Such streams are known as humpback streams.

The humpback is not found in Japan, where it is replaced by a closely allied species, with unspotted tail, the Masu {Oncorhynchus masou).

The dog salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) is known also as calico salmon and as chum, to the Russians as Hayko, and in Japan where it is especially abundant as Sake. It is rather larger than the silver salmon, averaging about ten pounds. It is plump and silvery, when taken in the sea, and may then be best distinguished from the red salmon by the tendency of the dark color of the back to form vertical bars on the side. In the breeding season, it becomes largely black, still obscurely barred, and the jaws are greatly elongated and distorted.

The flesh of the dog salmon is very pale, with little of the salmon flavor and none ot its color. When fresh from the sea it is however well-flavored and wholesome. When canned it is dirty white, soft and mushy, and with a strong taste of mud. It is then practically worthless as food. It runs in the rivers in the fall and for very short distances. Its flesh is then still more pale and mushy. It is in fact unfit for canning, and, the few firms who have packed it have been unable to dispose of the goods. The 'Rainbow Brand' was established for dog salmon.

The dog salmon takes salt well. It is the large salmon or saki of Japan, of which great quantities are salted in Japan, and Japan has also furnished a market for the same species salted in Alaska. The dog salmon—taken fresh in spring—is frozen and sent in cold storage to the East and to Germany, where it sells readily. The species is attractive in appearance, and when taken in the sea is good food, although unsuited for canning purposes.