The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, Volume 1 (of 2) — John Shaqi
The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, Volume 1 (of 2)Lord, John Keast
History
The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, Volume 1 (of 2)
Lord, John Keast
British Columbia -- Description and travel; Natural history -- British Columbia; Vancouver Island (B.C.) -- Description and travel
I never caught salmon-fry whilst fishing for trout, as we could so
easily do in our streams; and it is just possible that the rapid rise
(unlike anything we know of in our streams) that takes place in every
river, brook, and rivulet during midsummer, when the snow melts on the
hills, reducing the temperature of the water down to freezing-point,
may send the young salmon-fry into the saltwater at a very early period
of its life. “At three days old he is nearly two grains in weight; at
16 months old he has increased to two ounces, or 480 times its first
weight; at 20 months old, after the smolt has been a few months in
the sea, it becomes a grilse of 8½ lbs., having increased 68 times in
three or four months; at 2⅔ years old it becomes a salmon of from 12
to 15 lbs. weight, after which its increased rate of growth has not
been ascertained; but by the time it becomes 30 lbs. in weight, it has
increased 115,200 times the weight it was at first.”[2] These smolts
that I have seen in shoals were about half an ounce in weight, the
produce of the summer’s spawning. As I have stated, they disappear when
the floods set in; and nothing more is seen of them until they return
salmon of various sizes, from 2 lbs. to 75 lbs., or, as I believe, the
Quinnat and Stzoin.
The next salmon in importance, as affording food to the Indians, is
called by them at the Kettle Falls _cha-cha-lool_, and arrives with the
quinnat. This is unquestionably a fully-matured fish, and a distinct
species, answering in many particulars to the _Salmo Gairdneri_ of Sir
J. Richardson, F. B. A., ‘Fishes,’ p. 221; it will be as well to retain
that name. It may be readily distinguished from the quinnat by its
rounded blunt-looking nose, shorter and much thicker head, straighter
back, and more slender figure—the tail not nearly as much forked. The
entire colour of the back is much lighter, and thickly freckled, as
are the fins and tail, with oval black spots. The average weight of
the _cha-cha-lool_ is from 8 to 11 lbs. This salmon is common in the
Fraser, Chilukweyuk, and Sumass rivers, and in every stream along the
mainland and island coasts up which salmon ascend. When they first
arrive the flesh is most delicious—fat, pink, and firm withal, and
to my palate finer than that of the mammoth quinnat. The Indians also
prize these salmon, and pack them when dried in bales apart from the
others.
_Salmo Gairdneri_ and _S. quinnat_ are the spring salmon, but the
autumn has also its supply of ‘swimming silver,’ quite equal to that of
spring in point of numbers, but inferior in quality. Up the Columbia
in October to the Kettle Falls, and somewhat earlier in the Fraser
and rivers north of it, comes an ugly, unprepossessing, hook-nosed,
dingy-looking salmon, called by the Colville Indians _Keasoo_, by the
Chinooks _Ekewan_, by the Clallams _Kutch-kutch_—the _Hooked Snout_ of
the fur-traders, _Salmo lycaodon_ of Pallas, _Zoog. Russ. Asiat._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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