1068 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 



tree, but could not fiud one within four miles of the fishery. He did 

 find, however, a tree which would furnish a stick of timber of the re- 

 quired length and width and 12 inches in depth. This being the largest 

 tree that could be discovered within a reasonable distance, it was cut 

 down. Then four men spent three days scoring and hewing the log to 

 get it reduced to the projier dimensions and shape to be sawed into two 

 gunwales. When this was done a saw-pit was made and the timber was 

 hoisted on the pit. Then two men spent nearly two days sawing it in 

 two, lengthwise, with a whip-saw, one sawyer standing under the log 

 and one above it. We now had in the rough two solid plank gunwales 

 of the required length, width, and depth. As they lay on the saw-pit 

 they weighed nearly a ton apiece, and were too heavy for even ten meu 

 to move any distance, so we forded the river with a pair of horses and 

 drew the planks down the hill-side to the river. From here they were 

 floated down the stream and across the river to the landing nearest the 

 point where the boats were to be built. From here they were drawn 

 by horses again to the "ship-yard," as we called it. Then after consid- 

 erable hewing and finishing they were framed into the boats, making 

 two very solid and satisfactory gunwales. After these were got in, the 

 same process was repeated with another tree with the same results, 

 from which we obtained two more gunwales for the other boat. I men- 

 tion these details to show that we have something more to do here when 

 we want a thing of this sort than to go to the lumber yard and order it. 



In the four gunwale planks just described there were 1,600 feet of 

 lumber. But this was not all the work of this kind that we had to do, 

 for before the season was over we got out from the woods over 20,000 

 feet of square timber. 



The hatching house and the wheel, and the flume for carrying the 

 water from the wheel to the house, were no sooner completed than the 

 salmon began to spawn. This was in the last week of August. The 

 first ripe salmon, indeed, was caught August 25. 



This reminds me that I must mention the work that had to be done 

 on the seining ground, a large nearly circular basin in the river, where 

 we draw the seine for capturing parent salmon. When we left off fish- 

 ing last fall the ground over which we drew the seine was smooth and 

 safe for seining. When we examined it this spring, after the floods, it 

 was found to have been i^lowed through and through by the violence of 

 the current. Such deep cuts had been made through the former bed of 

 the river that both bowlders and sharp j^oints of bed rock, before 

 entirely covered, now projected 8 or 10 feet above the general level of 

 the river bed, and made it wholly impossible, of course, to draw the 

 seine over them. Our attempts to draw the seine before repairing the 

 ground resulted in getting snagged the first few times and finally tear- 

 ing the net entirely in two. 



The restoring of the seining ground being absolutely necessary, we 

 went to work at it as soon as the mess building was completed and the 



