PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. S5 



There were two of those ancient fisheries on the lower Sound — Point Roberts R«ef 

 and Village Point. 



The original reef net of the Indians, as described by the first white settlers and by 

 the Indians themselves, was constructed as follows: 



The natives peeled the bark from the willow and with it spun a twine and tied a net 

 about 25 feet in width and 40 feet in length, with a mesh substantially of the dimen- 

 sions and shape of that used in the now familiar pound net. 



They then went into the swamps and cut cedar withes. After heating rocks and 

 placing them in pools of water they steamed these withes, after which they twisted 

 them into substantial ropes. 



Their reef net operations were confined to the shoal waters over the reefs. The reef 

 net locations were of great value to the Indians, and were considered as property and 

 handed down from father to son. As a rule the Indian families controlling these loca- 

 tions owned an inner and outer location. The reef at Point Roberts is over 1 mile in 

 length . 



Reef net fishing was confined to the flood tide. At the beginning of the flood the 

 outer location was used, after the middle of the flood the nets were shifted to the inner 

 locations. 



The Indians assembled at the reefs in advance of the salmon run and prepared their 

 appliances. 



They first secured heavy boulders or blocks of sandstone from Chuckanut to be used 

 as anchors. They then procured for each net two logs about the length of their canoes. 

 To each end of these logs they tied one of their ropes, about 100 feet in length, the 

 other end of which was fastened to the stone anchor. These logs were anchored over 

 the top of the reef and about 20 feet apart. From the fonvard end of these logs there 

 was run out at an angle of 45° other ropes to a distance of 50 feet, the outward end 

 fastened to a buoy. To these ropes were fastened stalks of kelp, the ends weighted 

 to the bottom with stones. Thus was constructed a lead ojierating to concentrate the 

 approaching school of fish between the logs. Then from the front end of these logs 

 there was dropped fonvard and to the bottom two rop(>s, from one of these rop(»s to the 

 other, at intervals of 2 or 3 feet, were fastened cords of willow t\vine. This appliance 

 was called by the Indians a ladder. 



Now in operating the net itself two canoes were lashed on the inside of the logs. 

 Three Indians occupied one canoe and four the olher. The net was then suspended 

 between the canoes. The Indians in the forward end of the canoes held the ropes 

 fastened to the bottom of the net, those in the l)ack end held the ropes fastened to the 

 top of the net. The tide ninning against the net caused it to bag, or purse. The 

 fourth Indian in one of the canoes was generally an elderly man and was called the 

 watcher. He discovered the school of salmon as they were carried into the net and 

 at his signal the Indians at the front of the canoes pulled the lower edge of the net, 

 which was kept within 4 feet of the surface, above the water. The Indians at the 

 middle of the canoe reached down and caught the sides of the net, lifting the sides 

 above the surface. These Indians pulled against each other, the long ropes by which 

 the logs were moored giving enougn to allow the canoes 1o be pulled alongside each 

 other. The fish were then dumped into one of the canoes, after which the net was 

 loosened and lowered, and the boats fell back to their original position again. With 

 these appliances the Indians would take up to 3,000 salmon on a single run of the tide. 



This Indian appliance affords not only an interesting illustration of native ingenuity, 

 but as a matter of fact was the foreninner of the pound net. John Waller, a Welshman, 

 was one of the earliest settlers at Point Roberts. He observed the operations of the 

 reef net and in the early 60'8 constructed at Point Roberts the first pound net ever 

 driven on the Pacific coast. The leads duplicated that of the Indians, while he 

 impounded the salmon by means of the tunnel leading into a web pot, instead of 

 lifting them as impounded. 



The reef net marks the humble Siwaah as an inventor of some skill, and as a bene- 

 factor of some importance, and the apparatus would be in use to-day were it not for 

 the large number of people required to operate it. 



At one time this was a favorite device of the Puget Sound natives 

 for catching sockeye salmon. Owing to the large number of men 

 required to work them, and the fact that they can be worked only 

 at certain stages of tide and in favorable weather, these nets gradually 

 have been supplanted by other devices. In 1909 but five were usca, 

 and these were operated off the shores of San Juan, Henry, Steuart, 

 and Lummi Islands, and in the vicinity of Point Roberts. Practically 

 none are uaed at present. 



