HERRINGS. 103 



the canoes ; they also employ the 'rake,' already 

 described as used for taking candle-fish. One 

 savage, sitting in the stern of his canoe, paddles 

 along, keeping in the herring shoal; another, 

 having the rounded part of the rake firmly fixed 

 in both hands, sweeps it through the crowded 

 fish, from before aft, using all his force: gene- 

 rally speaking, every tooth has a herring im- 

 paled on it, sometimes three or four. It is 

 astonishing how rapidly an Indian will fill 

 his canoe with herrings, using this rude and 

 primitive contrivance. 



A wholesale system of capture is practised 

 in Puget's Sound, Point Discovery, and Port 

 Townsend, where large mud -flats run out for 

 long distances into the sea, which are left quite 

 dry at low-tide. Across these flats Indians 

 make long dams of latticework, having here and 

 there openings like our salmon-traps, allow- 

 ing herrings to pass easily in, but preventing 

 their return. Shoal after shoal pass through 

 these ' gates,' but are destined never to get back 

 to their briny home. It is not at all uncommon 

 to take from two to three tons of fish at one tide, 

 by this simple but ingenious method. 



When the tide is well out, and the flats clear 

 of water, the Indians bring down immense quan- 



