150 FISH HARVESTING. 



quite impossible to investigate its specific cha- 

 racter, inasmuch as the Indians immediately 

 set to work to cut the body in pieces, some to be 

 there and then devoured, after a very brief roast- 

 ing on a temporary fire; the remainder, packed 

 into the canoe,was taken to the village. 



Halibut are said to spawn in the middle of 

 February ; the roe, which is bright red, being es- 

 teemed a great dainty by all the Coast Indians. 



COD. The true Cod, although I never saw it 

 offered for sale in the Victoria market, is taken 

 both at the northern extremity of Vancouver 

 Island, and near Cape Flattery, at its southern 

 end. The Indians fish for them with hooks and 

 lines, and adopt very much the same system 

 for landing heavy obstinate fish as I have already 

 described as used to subdue the halibut. No 

 regular system of deep sea fishing had, when I 

 left the island, been tried by white men ; neither 

 had the trawl ever dragged up the treasures hid- 

 den at the bottom; so that deep-sea fish are still 

 comparatively .unknown. But of this I am quite 

 sure whenever fisheries are established along 

 the island coasts, the trawl and deep-sea line, 

 used by experienced hands, will bring up treasures 

 from mines of wealth as yet unworked, to which 

 gold and fur are nothing. 



