PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 251) 



kinds are cauglit fiirtlier nortli, and great quantities are salted by tlie 

 Hudson's Bay Company, at their trading post at Fort Simpson, Britisk 

 Columbia, and either sold in the Victoria market or shipped direct to 

 London in tierces, barrels, and kits. 



As an article of food and for the grease or fat contained in them, the 

 Eulaclion are highly prized by the Indians of Northern British Colum- 

 bia and Southern Alaska, where they abound; particularly at the Xass 

 Kiver, British Columbia, where they are annually taken in enormous 

 quantities, and where they seem to attain their very finest condition. 



The Nass Eiver flows into Portland Inlet near the fifty-fifth parallel 

 of north latitude, near the southern boundary of Alaska, and 30 

 miles north-northeast of Fort Simpson, British Columbia. At its mouth 

 it widens out into a bay called Nass Bay or Strait, in which are various 

 shoals favorable for the Eulachon spawning grounds. 



There are other rivers and streams in British Columbia and Alaska 

 at the mouths of which Eulachon are taken, but as the Nass Eiver fish- 

 ery exceeds them all, and is, in fact, the principal place where the busi- 

 ness is carried on by both whites and Indians, a description of that 

 fishery will suffice. 



The principal run of the fish reaches Nass Eiver in the latter part of 

 March, generally from the ICth to the 22d, varying in exceptional years 

 from the 28th to April 4. When the season apjjroaches the Indians as- 

 semble in great numbers ; not only the j^ishka, or natives of the Nass 

 country, but Irom hundreds of miles distant, some in canoes and some 

 overland. In former years quarrels and fights among the dififerent 

 tribes were common, but of late years the influences of the missions at 

 Metlakatla, Kincoleth, and Fort Simpson have produced a favorable 

 change, not only in inducing them to be more peaceful, but to lay aside 

 their old heathen superstitions, one of which was that all the fish eaten . 

 for the first four or five days after they commence to arrive must be 

 either fried or toasted; no one was allowed to boil any, as they believed 

 that if any were boiled the fish would immediately leave the river; they 

 were also strictly forbidden to drink water after a meal of fish, lest there 

 should be rain which would hinder the drying. These ceremonies are 

 now abandoned in a great measure, and but seldom practiced at the 

 present time. 



The Eulachon only travel up the Fass Eiver as far as the flood tides 

 reach, which is from 15 to 20 miles from its mouth. For about 7 miles 

 from jSTass Strait the river is unsuited for fishing operations. From 

 theiiee to the Nass Village, at the head of tide-water, is a succession of 

 sand-bars, and these form the spawning beds of the fish. Every avail- 

 able spot along the banks of the river is occupied by the Indians during 

 the fishing season, who erect temporary wigwams for themselves. 



As the fishing season approaches the arrival of the fish is anxiously 

 watched bj^ the natives, as it is a season of the year in which they are 

 generally out of food. 



