SALMON HATCHING ON m'CLOUD EIVER, CALIFORNIA, 1878.751 



Indians down the river for this purpose. By going over the lish with 

 boats, by throwing in rocks, by stirring up the holes with long poles, by 

 floating down trees and brush over them, we have usually succeeded in 

 driving back the fish that have gone doion the river from the fishing- 

 ground. This, however, did not enable us to get at the fish that went 

 tip the river and that lay in the rapids, and i^articularly in the deep 

 holes betweeil the seining-grounds and the bridge above. Here vast 

 quantities of salmon collected, which we had never hitherto been able 

 satisfactorily to reach. This year I accomplished it in this way : I had 

 several Indians go up to the bridge armed with long poles. At a given 

 signal three Indians jumped into the foaming rapids below the bridge, 

 and by splashing the water with their arms and limbs and making as 

 much of a disturbance in the water as ijossible did everything they could 

 to frighten the salmon out of the rapids. On reaching the deep holes, 

 where the fish lay collected by hundreds and perhaps thousands, the 

 Indians dove down in the very midst of the swarms of salmon, and, 

 stirring them up with their long looles, succeeded in driving them out. 



In order to co-operate most effectively with the Indian divers, I had the 

 seiuing-boat, with the boatmen all ready in it, stationed just at the point 

 where the boat starts across the river with the net. On the beach also, 

 where the net is drawn in, the fishermen were stationed at the ropes, 

 seven men at the lower rope, and four men at the uiiper one, ready to 

 Ijull in the seine at the proj)er moment. On the other side of the river, 

 nearly opposite the fishing-boat, was stationed a boatman with a second 

 boat, whose duty it was when the net was payed out to pull down close 

 to the opposite shore where the net itself could not reach, in order to 

 prevent the salmon from skulking there away from the seine. Still lower 

 down on each side of the river were men stationed on the banks to 

 throw rocks into the rapids below, with the intention of driving the fish 

 out of the rapids into the net. 



On these occasions the hauling of the seine was quite an exciting event. 

 The Indian swimmers, their dark heads just showing above the white 

 foam, screaming and shouting in the icy waters and brandishing their 

 long poles, came down the rapids at great speed, disapi)earing entirely 

 now and then as they dove down into a deep hole. As soon as they 

 approached within about four rods of the fishing-skiff', the boat shot out 

 from the shore, the second boat man braced himself and his oars for a 

 quick pull down along the bank. The man at the stern of the first boat 

 began paying out the seine, the fishermen on the beach gathered at their 

 respective ropes, the men on shore began throwing rocks in the rapids, 

 and in a few moments the net was drawn to the beach with an enormous 

 mass of struggling, writhing salmon, often weighing in the aggregate 

 not less than four or five tons. Then the fishermen sprang into the water 

 and examined the fish, taking the ripe ones to the corral and throwing 

 the unripe ones back into the river until the net was emptied. Then aU 

 was quiet again and the men i^roceeded to take the eggs from the ripe 

 fish which they had captured. 



