River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-11-02

and many Americans have Informed me
that they have seen these fish exceed
80 pounds on. the scales. Personally,
have never seen one of 80 pounds taken
from the nets; and, moreover, the fol-
lowing statement was made to me by
Mr.. HI. M. Wetherbee, the manager of d
large cannery in Cooks Inlet, Alaska.
He said that, although he was for Ii
years in charge of a cannery on the Co
lumbia river, and had been since then
some IL years in Alaska, he had never
seen king salmon which exceeded 80
pounds when placed on the scales. And
this was the more remarkable, since
throughout the whole of that time there
was an offer on his part, which still
holds good to present the sum of $40 to
any person who could bring one of these
fish to him which exceeded 80 pounds
in weight. The largest specimen of this
salmon of which have been able to OBJ
tain authentic information is stuffed
fish owned by the late Mr.. W. Bell Irv-
ing. I believe this fish was killed in
the Skeena river, British Columbia, and
taken to England by it's late owner, who
supplied me with the following details:
Lenth Of fish, four feet five inches;
girth, two feet nine inches; weight, SO15
pounds. It has, however, been so con-
fidently stated on good authority that
this salmon does occasionally reach 100
pounds that we may suppose that such
is the case.
The king salmon runs principally in
the largest rivers, such as the Columbia,
the Sacramento and the Yukon, and
elsewhere. In the southern rivers the
run begins in May, but further north, in
pertain parts of Alaska, not much be-
fore the early part of June. They
ascend the Yukon river as far as point
Just below Lake Bennett, which is dis
lance Of nearly 1900 miles from the sea.
I have been unable to discover accurate
statistics as to the exact dates in each
year when the salmon are first seen at
Caribou Crossing, below Lake Bennett.
The details would be interesting, to show
the time which these fish take in trav-
ersing this enormous distance of nearly
5000 miles. 1t might be determined
with some degree of accuracy, since it is
certain that the salmon do not enter
the river until it is clear of the ice foes,
which break up at irregular dates In the
spring. Like all the other salmon on
the northwest coasts of America, this
fish begins to change color shortly after
IT enters fresh water and commences to
spawn. Its silvery skin soon changes
to dull color, and the red fish, which
is at first the most delicate of all kinds
for eating, becomes in short time white
and soft, like that of a kelt in European
waters The range of the king salmon
along the American coasts extends from
the Ventura river in California to Nor
ton sound in Alaska, and probably even
further north, but beyond this district
little is at present known of the fish or
it's habits.
Next in importance, as regards its
commercial value, comes the red sal
mon (Oncorhynchus nerka), the most
common Of it's local names being the
sockeye. 1t is also called in certain dis
tricts the blue back and the red fisn.
These salmon always spawn in the shall
low waters of a lake or in the gravel
shadows at the mouths Of tributary
streams which flow into a lake; conse-
quently they are never found in river
which does not flow either through
lake or rise IN one. They run in certain
rivers in such vast numbers that during
the main run of the fish, the water pre-
sents a spectacle of moving mass OF
fish as they jostle each other in their
mad rush upwards to certain destruc-
ton, never resting by day or night until
they have reached their destination.
There are still some rivers in Alaska