STICKLEBACKS. 129 



used for feeding the dogs. I have seen cartloads 

 of these tiny fish in a single pool, left by the 

 receding waters after the summer floods, on the 

 Sumass prairie and banks of the Chilukweyuk 

 river. As the water rapidly evaporated, the miser- 

 able captives huddled closer and closer together, 

 starving with hunger and panting for air, but 

 without the remotest chance of escape. The 

 sticklebacks die and decompose, or yield ban- 

 quets to the bears, weasels, birds, and beetles; 

 the pool dries, and in a few weeks not a trace 

 or record remains of the dead host of fishes. In 

 the smaller streams, a bowl dipped into the water 

 where the sticklebacks were thickest, could be 

 readily filled with fish. 



Sticklebacks are the most voracious little 

 gourmands imaginable, devourers of everything, 

 and cannibals into the bargain ; tearing their 

 wounded comrades into fragments, they greedily 

 swallow them. I have often taken this species 

 (G. concinnus) in Esquimalt Harbour, where 

 they are very plentiful during the winter months. 

 The natives of Kamtschatka make use of a 

 stickleback ('G. obolarius), which they obtain in 

 great quantities, not only as food for the sledge- 

 dogs, but for themselves also, by making them 

 into a, kind of soup. West of the Rocky 



VOL. I. K 



