BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 15 



made sufficiently large to allow the young fish to escape by passing 

 entirely through them, and are held until the fisherman comes and se- 

 cures his catch. The fish are then cut open" from head to tail, and 

 carefully cleaned inside and out; all the black skin being peeled oft' the 

 back bone. They are then soaked in fresh water, then in salt brine, and 

 finally packed in barrels. There are seldom more or less than 23 fish 

 to a barrel. As each barrel brings about $12 cash, each fish is valued 

 at 50 cents. This is of course the first cost of the fish. 



Salmon-fishing is only in its prime for about four weeks, between, 

 say, July 25 aud August 25. Tins fishing is plentiful all along the 

 rivers on the coast, aud there is seldom one that has not several fish- 

 eries upon it. I should say that a barrel of salted salmon will average 

 about 200 pounds in weight. Salmon are, other than above, preserved 

 by drying, smoking, and canning. The latter process is rarely if at all 

 employed in Labrador, the other two seldom. They are smoked much 

 as herring are, and dried in the sun much as codfish on the fish flakes. 

 Salmon are caught with the hook and line by those who care to angle 

 for them ; and as the rivers and bays are quite full at the proper sea- 

 son, it is a work of pleasure and profit to practice the rod with this 

 king of fish in his native element and at home, when he is most abun- 

 dant. 



A gentleman by the name of Napoleon Corneau, an agent for a firm 

 situated at the mouth of Goodbout River, has given his time and atten- 

 tion so fully to this sport that his record for salmon-catching stands 

 alone so far as I know. I am not prepared to say that the record is 

 the " largest score of salmon ever killed by a single man in the world," 

 but certainly it looks most extraordinarily like it. Within a period of 

 eighteendays, a few years- since, beginning July S, he captured 305 fish, 

 weighing altogether 3,801 pounds. This is an average of over 20 fish a 

 day and also of about 10|- pounds for each fish. The largest fish 

 weighed 20 pounds. 



I should add that this last year (1881) a French steamer visited several 

 localities- along the coast purchasing salmon from the people fresh from 

 the nets at a liberal price. The fish were submitted to a refrigerating 

 process and packed for shipment to a foreign market. That year the 

 success was sufficient to warrant the captain in making great offers to 

 the people for the following year, but whether the actual sale will 

 permit so expensive an equipment again or not remains to be seen. 

 Freezing salmon may be a success so far as the freezing goes, but can 

 there be found a company or even a single man enterprising enough to 

 risk his capital in building up a trade that it is not at all likely will be- 

 come general? Do not understand me as discouraging the enterprise, 

 for a flourishing trade ought to be built up in this very business if the 

 first attempts are successful. 



Trout. — The trout-fisheries are conducted much like, and generally 

 in company with, the salmon fisheries The nets used are long and 



