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THE STURGEON. 179 
Sturgeon arrive in the Columbia early in Feb- 
ruary, and a little later in the Fraser, although 
a great number above the Kettle Falls, at Fort 
Colville, must remain permanently in the fresh- 
water. They ascend .the rivers to incredible 
distances, in the Fraser as high as Fraser Lake, 
quite up in the Rocky Mountains. In the Co- 
lumbia sturgeon have been taken eight hundred 
miles above the Kettle Falls, which are, speaking 
roughly, eighteen hundred miles from the sea, 
and, in accomplishing this, several very serious 
obstacles have to be overcome. Up the Snake 
river, at the great Shoshonee Falls (a salmon- 
station of the Snake Indians), sturgeon are often 
taken. The Snake river, tributary to the Co- 
lumbia, is about fourteen hundred miles from 
the sea. 
One would never imagine a fish clad in stiff 
unyielding armour could ascend rapid torrents 
and leap falls that puzzle even the lissom salmon; 
but the strength of the sturgeon is immense, and 
the power it can exert with the tail would be 
almost incredible to those, who have never seen 
the rapid twists, plunges, and other performances 
this fish goes through, when it has a barbed 
hook in the jaws, or a spear between the joints of 
its mail, 
N 2 
