16 Museum Notes

Sounds and Inlets in order to spawn in shallow water near the shore, where they
attach their eggs to sea weeds, rocks, stones, etc., during February and March.

Throughout the winter they eat little or nothing, but after spawning go back
into the ocean in search of food.

PILCHARD. These are numerous off the coast of B. C. all summer; they are
exclusively plankton feeders and form large “schools” or shoals.

During the summer they enter the various Sounds and Inlets, probably tempted
by the food supply, and remain there until about the end of the year, when they return
to the open sea in order to spawn; their eggs are pelagic; the times of spawning and the
location of their spawning grounds are now being investigated by the Fisheries Board.
it is generally supposed to be towards the South.

They are caught in seine nets; these can only be used when the fish are in sheltered
waters.

SALMON. The remarkable habit of these fish of ascending rivers and spawning
on gravelly shallows in streams and lakes is familiar to everyone in this country, but
the origin of the habit is a matter of controversy; opinions differ as to whether they
are a freshwater fish that goes to the sea for food or are a sea fish that comes into
fresh water to spawn.

The Pacific salmon, unlike the Atlantic species, dies after spawning; that there
are exceptions is possible, and the subject is under investigation at the present time by
Dr. Williamson of the Fisheries Board.

The ova are deposited in the autumn, and the young hatch out in the spring; they
remain for varying times in fresh water, but usually about a year; they then migrate to
the sea; at about four years of age (3-5 years) they return to the rivers to spawn and
die in their turn.

The age of a fish and the time spent by it in fresh water and the sea respectively
can be ascertained from an examination of the scales, the rings of growth telling the
story of its life as the rings in a tree trunk give the history of the tree.

The scales of over 6000 salmon are examined every year by Dr. Clemens, the
Director of the Biological Station at Nanaimo, and the results published annually by
the Fisheries Board.

There are five species of Pacific salmon:

SPRING, or “Tyee” or “Chinook” Salmon. Oncorhynchus tschawytscha.
Cono, or “Blueback.”’ Oncorhynchus kisutch.

SOCKEYE. Oncorhynchus nerka.

Humppsack, or “Pink.” Oncorhynchus gorbuscha.

Doc Satmon, or “Chum.” Oncorhynchus keta.

The last three species rarely take a spoon bait.

The Steelhead belongs to the Salmonidae family and is a sea-run Rainbow trout.

Whilst they are young, all these species feed on the animal life in the “plankton,”

NotE:—The above scientific names are glaring examples of uncouth nomenclature,
all these fish rightly

as well as an instance of the unnecessary multiplication of genera
belong to the Salmo genus of Europe.