PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 79 



the bottom is rapidly closed up just as a handbag would be through 

 the drawing together of the pursing string at the top. During this 

 operation the nonpower purse seiners have a man standing alongside 

 the rail who throws a pole mto the center in order to drive the fish 

 away from the open section. He is so skillful in this work that 

 almost invariably the pole comes back to his hand as the pressure 

 of the waters forces it up again. When the bottom has been pursed 

 up the fishermen hauling by hand can move more leisurely, but with 

 the power winches in use the hauling in of the net is a comparatively 

 easy matter, and the pole thrower is dispensed with. 



\Yhen all the fish are in the bunt and the latter alongside, the fish 

 are generally dipped out by means of a dip net balanced on the end 

 of a tackle. A fisherman lowers it into the seine, scoops up a load 

 of salmon, and as the net is hauled up guides it over the vessel, and 

 then trips it and dumps the fish into the hold. 



The ruget Sound purse seiners meet the salmon off the entrance 

 to the Strait of San Juan de Fuca and follow the sockeyes till they 

 have passed out of American waters, what are known as the Salmon 

 Banks, off the lower end of San Juan Island, being the principal 

 rendezvous during the run of sockeyes. After this run is over they 



fo up the Sound and fish for dogs and cohos, and later go to the 

 ead of the Sound and fish for dogs, cohos, chinooks, and steel- 

 head trout. In southeast Alaska they follow the fish all over the 

 bays, straits, and sounds of that section. Purse seines are used in 

 a few other places, but the fishery is secondary to those with other 

 forms of apparatus. 



This style of fishing is said to have been introduced on Puget 

 Sound by the Chinese m 1886. 



TRAPS OR POUND NETS. 



A trap is stationary' and consists of webbing, or part webbing and 

 part wire netting, h(>ld in placi^ and position by thiven piles. This 

 piling usually is held together above water by a continuous lino 

 of wood stringers, also used to fasten webbing to or to walk on if 

 necessary. 



In building, the "lead" is first constructed. This runs at right 

 angh's, or very nearly so, to the shore, and consists of a straight 

 line of stakes, to which wire or net webbing is hung from top of 

 hi^h water, or a little higher, to the bottom, making a straight, 

 solid wall. 



At a little distance inshore of the outer end of the lead begin what 

 ar(^ calU'd the "hearts." Thos(^ are V-shaped and turned toward the 

 lead, beginning at a distance of 'SO to 40 feet on either side of same 

 and ruiuiing in the same general direction, the "big heart" or outer 

 heart first, the inner heart, supplementing the first, being smaUer, 

 and the end of the outer heart leading into it. Some traps have 

 only one heart. The narrow end of the inner heart leads into the 

 "pot" and forms what is known as the "tunnel." The tunnel ends 

 in a long and narrow opening, running up and down the long way, 

 and is held in position by ropes and rods. Below this is what is 

 kno\s'n as the "apron," a sheet of web stretched from the bottom of 

 th<' heart iif)\\'ar(i to the pot, in order to lead the (ish into the tuimel 

 when swimming low in the water, and to obviate the necessity of 



