84 TRANSACTIONS OF THK CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. TV. 



CHAPTER V. 



Traps and Snares. 



fish traps. 



Judged by their staple food, the Carriers and the Tsi[Koh'tin are mari- 

 time or coast tribes, since they mostly rely upon the annual run of 

 salmon for their sustenance during the whole year. But, owing to the 

 topography of their country and their peculiar environments, their mode 

 of securing their supply of the fish materially differs from that adopted 

 by the coast Indians. Nay more, even among themselves the process 

 varies according to the localities and the nature of the fish stream. It 

 may be broadly stated that at least seven different devices are resorted 

 to, which I shall presently endeavour to explain. 



In the first place one should not forget that the salmon almost ex- 

 clusively referred to in the present paragraph, that on which the two 

 tribes named above mainly subsist, is the so-called Fraser River salmon 

 {Oncorhynchus nerka, Walbaum). It is exceedingly gregarious in habits 

 and usually plentiful. As will soon be seen, these two peculiarities are 

 taken occasion of by the natives to facilitate its capture. 



Where it is practicable the Kamstkadals' method of salmon-fishing is 

 followed. This consists in staking across the river in its whole width 

 and leaving for the fish only narrow passages ending in long, funnel- 

 shaped baskets from which escape is impossible. Owing to the import- 

 ance of this industry, some detailed explanation of the whole process 

 will not be out of place. 



At intervals of forty or fifty feet heavy posts are driven as solidly as 

 possible in the bed of the stream from shore to shore, and on these will 

 depend the strength of the whole structure. As an additional guarantee 

 against the action of the current, as many props or braces are sunk 

 slanting down stream and secured against the upright posts close to the 

 water line. In this and all similar cases the fastening material consists 

 of willow, high cranberry bush or spruce sapling wattle. Finally, heavy 

 poles, as long as can be found, are laid transversely on the forks formed 

 by the intersection of the piles with their props, and the result consti- 

 tutes what may be called the skeleton of the weir. The intervals be- 

 tween the upright posts are afterwards filled in by poles driven down in 

 the bed of the river, and as these are placed on the upstream side of the 



