e tales seem, yet they are more or less
true. For these immense shoals come through the San Juan Straits and
head northwards up the British Columbian coast towards Alaska, while
only a mere detachment enters the Fraser, a detachment of a few
millions. And also if it be true that none return, they can have no
leaders to show the way, but must retrace the route they took as smolts
on their way from the river to the ocean, impelled by the sexual
instinct to propagate the species. They appear to hang about the mouth
of the Fraser for a short time, then advance upwards as far as it is
possible to go, hundreds of miles into the interior, and up every stream
which will permit of their progress, where they eventually spawn and
die.

The silver salmon and blue-backs run in separate shoals, and their
respective names show the difference between them. Very handsome fish
are they in spring, of a bright silver hue resembling a fresh run
grilse, and about seven or eight pounds in weight. But they quickly
become red, and in the upper waters of the rivers often present a far
from healthy appearance, showing visible traces of their struggles with
the rocks and whirlpools encountered in their ascent. This well-known
red appearance is not, however, altogether due to the effects of the
fresh water, for straggling late bands are described as entering through
the Straits of San Juan in the autumn which are almost as red as their
earlier fellows at that time in the upper waters of the Fraser.

On the heels of the sockeye come the humpback and the dog salmon, about
the same in size, and fine silvery fish before the breeding season sets
in. But it is late in the autumn when they arrive, and their flesh is
white and does not meet the demands of the market. The so-called hump is
only present in the breeding season.

An attempt was made to can and sell them as white salmon, but without
success; though recently a market has been found in Japan, whither they
are sent in the dried form. Japan, by the way, possesses a sixth species
of _Oncorhynchus_, the masu, a fish resembling the humpback, but this is
not known to British Columbian waters.

Although an immense toll is taken by the canneries, yet the supply of
fish still continues, assisted by the hatcheries which have been
supplied by the Government of Canada, by whose aid it is hoped that the
effects of over-fishing will be counteracted. For this hope there is
considerable ground, as the fishin