Page:The Pacific Monthly volumes 1-3.djvu/83



Vol. I

COLUMBIA RIVER SALMON.

By HOLLISTER D. McGUIRE, Oregon State Fish Commissioner.

NCORHYNCHUS, pronounced Ong-ko-ring-kus, is the scientific name of the Pacific Coast salmon, of which there are five distinct species. They were first recognized and described by Stellar, the most exact of early observers. He described and distinguished them with perfect accuracy in the year 1731. Some 60 years later the German compiler, Johann Walbaum, gave scientific names to all the salmon and trout which travelers had described. After Stellar and Walbaum, Pallas, in the year 1811, recognized these same species and gave them other names. Since then writers with little or no knowledge at all of the subject have done their worst to confuse, until no exact knowledge of any of the species remained.

Until a few years ago the breeding males of the five species constituted a separate genus of many species; the females were placed in the genus Salmo, and the young in still another species of a third genus called Fario. This was supposed to be a genus of trout.

David Starr Jordan says that not one of the many writers on these fishes 45 years ago knew a single species at sight or used knowingly in their description a single character by which species are really distinguished. Many of those engaged in the salmon industry on the Columbia, as well as others, have fallen into a great error concerning the number of species of salmon running in that stream. Some 15 years ago W. A. Jones, major of engineers, U. S. A., in a report to congress (Ex. Doc. No. 123, 50th Congress, first ses sion, page 16) gave a list of 12 species of salmon "that run in the Columbia." This popular error, in regard to the number of species, is in great part due no doubt to the extraordinary variability in appearance of the different species of salmon, largely attributable to the conditions incident to the development of the reproductive organs.

At the present time ichthyologists are a unit in the opinion that there are only five distinct species of salmon in the Pacic, viz., (1) the Chinook, or quinnat salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha); (2) the blueback salmon, or red fish (Oncorhynchus nerka); (3) the silver salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch); (4) the dog salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), and (5) the humpback salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha); these scientific names being those given them by Walbaum nearly 100 years ago.

The Columbia river is the only stream in which four of the five species of the Oncorhynchus are found in abundance, the humpback (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) being the only species not entering that stream in large numbers, and individuals of that species have also been taken occasionally.

The spring run of Chinook (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha) is by far the largest, most important and valuable of the salmon family. Its flesh has an oiliness and richness of flavor that makes it far superior to the other species as an article of food. It is the standard of excellency, and when packed in hermetically sealed