A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 2 (of 2)

by David Starr Jordan

The color in adults, according to Dr. Day, is "superiorly of a steel-blue, becoming lighter on the sides and beneath. Mostly a few rounded or X-shaped spots scattered above the lateral line and upper half of the head, being more numerous in the female than in the male. Dorsal, caudal, and pectoral fins dusky; ventrals and anal white, the former grayish internally. Prior to entering fresh waters these fish are of a brilliant steel-blue along the back, which becomes changed to a muddy tinge when they enter rivers. After these fish have passed into the fresh waters for the purpose of breeding, numerous orange streaks appear in the cheeks of the male, and also spots or even marks of the same, and likewise of a red color, on the body. It is now termed a 'redfish.' The female, however, is dark in color and known as 'blackfish.' 'Smolts' (young river fish) are bluish along the upper half of the body, silvery along the sides, due to a layer of silvery scales being formed over the trout-like colors, while they have darker fins than the yearling 'ping,' but similar bands and spots, which can be seen (as in the parr) if the example be held in certain positions of light. 'Parr' (fishes of the year) have two or three black spots only on the opercle, and black spots and also orange ones along the upper half of the body, and no dark ones below the lateral line, although there may be orange ones which can be seen in its course. Along the side of the body are a series (12 to 15) of transverse bluish bands, wider than the ground color and crossing the lateral line, while in the upper half of the body the darker color of the back forms an arch over each of these bands, a row of spots along the middle of the rayed dorsal fin, and the adipose orange-tipped."

The dusky cross-shades found in the young salmon or parr are characteristic of the young of salmon, trout, grayling, and nearly all the other Salmonidæ.

The salmon of the Atlantic is, as already stated, an anadromous fish, spending most of its life in the sea, and entering the streams in the fall for the purpose of reproduction. The time of running varies much in different streams and also in different countries. As with the Pacific species, these salmon are not easily discouraged in their progress, leaping cascades and other obstructions, or, if these prove impassable, dying after repeated fruitless attempts.

The young salmon, known as the "parr," is hatched in the spring. It usually remains about two years in the rivers, descending at about the third spring to the sea, when it is known as "smolt." In the sea it grows much more rapidly, and becomes more silvery in color, and is known as "grilse." The grilse rapidly develop into the adult salmon; and some of them, as in the case with the grilse of the Pacific salmon, are capable of reproduction.

After spawning the salmon are very lean and unwholesome in appearance, as in fact. They are then known as "kelts." The Atlantic salmon does not ascend rivers to any such distances as those traversed by the quinnat and the blue-back. Its kelts, therefore, for the most part survive the act of spawning. Dr. Day thinks that they feed upon the young salmon in the rivers, and that, therefore, the destruction of the kelts might increase the supply of salmon.

As a food-fish the Atlantic salmon is very similar to the quinnat salmon, neither better nor worse, so far as I can see, when equally fresh. In both the flesh is rich and finely flavored; but the appetite of man becomes cloyed with salmon-flesh sooner than with that of whitefish, smelt, or charr. In size the Atlantic salmon does not fall far short of the quinnat. The average weight of the adult is probably less than fifteen pounds. The largest one of which I find a record was taken on the coast of Ireland in 1881, and weighed 84¾ pounds.

The salmon is found in Europe between the latitude of 45° and 75°. In the United States it is now rarely seen south of Cape Cod, although formerly the Hudson and numerous other rivers were salmon-streams. Overfishing, obstructions in the rivers, and pollution of the water by manufactories and by city sewage are agencies against which the salmon cannot cope.

Seven species of salmon (as distinguished from trout) are recognized by Dr. Günther in Europe, and three in America. The landlocked forms, abundant in Norway, Sweden, and Maine, which cannot, or at least do not, descend to the sea, are regarded by him as distinct species. "The question," observes Dr Günther, "whether any of the migratory species can be retained by artificial means in fresh water, and finally accommodate themselves to a permanent sojourn therein, must be negatived for the present." On this point I think that the balance of evidence leads to a different conclusion. These fresh-water forms (Sebago and Ouananiche) are actually salmon which have become landlocked. I have compared numerous specimens of the common landlocked salmon (Salmo salar sebago) of the lakes of Maine and New Brunswick with landlocked salmon (Salmo salar hardini) from the lakes of Sweden, and with numerous migratory salmon, both from America and Europe. I see no reason for regarding them as specifically distinct. The differences are very trivial in kind, and not greater than would be expected on the hypothesis of recent adaptation of the salmon to lake life. We have therefore on our Atlantic coast but one species of salmon, Salmo salar. The landlocked form of the lakes of Maine is Salmo salar sebago. The Ouananiche of Lake St. John and the Saguenay, beloved of anglers, is Salmo salar ouananiche.

The Ouananiche.—Dr. Henry Van Dyke writes thus of the Ouananiche: "But the prince of the pool was the fighting Ouananiche, the little salmon of St. John. Here let me chant thy praise, thou noblest and most high-minded fish, the cleanest feeder, the merriest liver, the loftiest leaper, and the bravest warrior of all creatures that swim! Thy cousin, the trout, in his purple and gold with crimson spots, wears a more splendid armor than thy russet and silver mottled with black, but thine is the kinglier nature.

"The old salmon of the sea who begat thee long ago in these inland waters became a backslider, descending again to the ocean, and grew gross and heavy with coarse feeding. But thou, unsalted salmon of the foaming floods, not landlocked as men call thee, but choosing of thine own free will to dwell on a loftier level in the pure, swift current of a living stream, hath grown in grace and risen to a better life.