108 FISH HARVESTING. 



fish, lashing the sea with their paddles, and ut- 

 tering the most fiendish yells. Out leap the fish 

 from the water, in their panic to escape this (to 

 their affrighted senses) terrible monster; and if 

 not ' out of the fryingpan into the fire,' it is out 

 of the sea into the canoes which in the long 

 run I take to be pretty much the same thing. 



It appears to be a singular trait in the cha- 

 racter of viviparous fish, that of leaping high 

 out of the water on the slightest alarm. I have 

 often seen them jump into my boat when rowing 

 through a shoal, which is certainly most accom- 

 modating. The Indians also spear them: they 

 use a long slender haft with four barbed points, 

 arranged in a circle, but bent so as to make them 



o 



stand at a considerable distance from each other. 

 With this spear they strike into a shoal of fish, 

 and generally impale three or four; many are 

 caught with hooks, but they bite shily, the only 

 baits I have seen taken being salmon-roe nearly 

 putrid, or bits of crab. 



Just prior to my leaving Vancouver Island, 

 numbers were netted by some Italian fishermen 

 who had a seine. They found a ready sale 

 for them in the market, but as a table-dainty they 

 are scarcely worth eating; the flesh is insipid, 

 watery, and flabby, and I am convinced that no 



