STICKLEBACKS. 129 
/ 
used for feeding the dogs. I have seen cartloads 
of these tiny fish in a single pool, left by the 
receding waters after the summer floods, on the 
Sumass prairie and banks of the Chilukweyuk 
river. As the water rapidly evaporated, the miser- 
able captives huddled closer and closer together, 
starving with hunger and panting for air, but 
without the remotest chance of escape. The 
sticklebacks die and decompose, or yield ban- 
quets to the bears, weasels, birds, and beetles; 
the pool dries, and in a few weeks not a trace 
or record remains of the dead host of fishes. In 
the smaller streams, a bowl dipped into the water 
where the sticklebacks were thickest, could be 
readily filled with fish. ; 
Sticklebacks are the most voracious little 
gourmands imaginable, devourers of everything, 
and cannibals into the bargain; tearing their 
wounded comrades into fragments, they greedily 
swallow them. I have often taken this species 
(G. concinnus) in Esquimalt Harbour, where 
they are very plentiful during the winter months. 
The natives of Kamtschatka make use of a 
stickleback ((. obolarius), which they obtain in 
great quantities, not only as food for the sledge- 
dogs, but for themselves also, by making them 
into a kind of soup. West of the Rocky 
VOL, I. K 
