rnOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 45 



All examination sliowed tlie pebbles to be inenistcd with spawn, and 

 as ail the smelts I cooked were males, T concluded that the females had 

 first come in and cast their spawn and were succeeded by the males, 

 ■who deposited their milt. 1 handled and noticed a great many, and 

 cooked several dozens on two successive days, but did not notice a sin- 

 gle female. This might have been purely accidental, and perhaps at 

 another time the catch would have proved all females. 



On the first appearance of the fish, the Indians rush into the surf and 

 press the outer edge of the net down firmly on the sand or shingle, the 

 swash of the breaker forcing the smelta into the net. Then, as the 

 water recedes, they turn round quickly and hold the net so that the 

 undertow will force more smelts into it. In this way I sav/ them take 

 at least a bushel at a single scoop. 



In their immense numbers, these smelts resemble the culachon. 

 {O.smcnis imcljicus) or candle-fish, which are taken in such enormous 

 (piantities at iSI^ass lliver, in British Columbia, near the southern bounil 

 ary of Alaska. 



After every scoop, the Indian, if successful, empties its contents on 

 the beach, where the squaws and children quickly gather them into 

 baskets, and carry them to the houses, where they are strung on strips 

 of cedar bark and hung uj) to dry. The method of stringing them is to 

 take each one separately and pass a half hitch with the bark around the 

 head Just back of the gills. This keeps each fish separate, and enables 

 them to dry better. 



The Quiliehutes still retain the ancient superstition, formerly so prev- 

 alent among the coast tribes, relative to their fish, that the first ones 

 must not be sold or given away to be taken to another place, nor must 

 they be cut transversely, but split open with a muscle-shell. 



I was fortunate in obtaining quarters in the house of an Indian who 

 had a cooking-stove, where we cooked our rations as suited us. One of 

 the Indians of our party obtained some smelts, which he boiled for sup- 

 per, cooking them in the Qnillehnte stylo ; he gave me some, which I 

 fried. No sooner did the Quiliehutes learn that I was cooking some of 

 their fish than two of the head chiefs, Howcattl and Klakistokar, came 

 to see what I was doing, as they feared I would cut the fish with a knife; 

 but I fried them whole, and when they saw me take the nice crispy 

 smelts with my hand and eat them entire, without aid of knife or fork, 

 they grunted forth their satisfaction, and allowed me to purchase as 

 many as I wished to take away. But of salmon they would neither 

 give or sell. The fall run of the SaJmo cam's and Sahno proteus had just 

 commenced to come, and while they gave us all we could eat of their own 

 cooking, in their own houses, they refused to sell or give a single fish to 

 l)e taken away. They fully believed that if we took any salmon into 

 our canoe, all the salmon would desert the Quillehute Eiver and follow 

 us to Xeeah Bay, and if we had cut the smelts or salmon with a knife, 

 they all would inuuediately disappear in the ocean and never return. 



