Bahcock. — The Great Fraser River Fishery 237 



the channel, incident to the construction of the Canadian Northern 

 Pacific Railroad, so that few were able to pass through during that 

 time. No humpbacks succeeded in passing through the canyon. The 

 blasting of temporary passage-ways enabled a large proportion of the 

 sockeye run of October and November to pass through the canyon. In 

 August, sockeyes were seen drifting down-stream between Hell's Gate 

 and Yale ; the movement was very pronounced in September, and con- 

 tinued until the middle of October. The streams which enter the 

 Fraser between Hell's Gate and Agassiz were filled with sockeyes from 

 the middle of August until the end of October, while they had not been 

 observed in those streams in previous years. Very few sockeyes spawned 

 in any of those streams and most of them died without spawning. Great 

 numbers of dead sockeyes which had died without spawning, were found 

 on the bars and banks of the Fraser between Yale and Agassiz in 

 September and October. The number which reached Quesnel Lake was 

 little more than an eighth of the number which entered that lake in 

 1909. The run to Ohilko Lake was equally small. The sockeye run to 

 Seton Lake was 30,000, as against 1,000,000 in 1909. The August and 

 September run of sockeyes to Shuswap and Adams Lakes was much less 

 than in any former big year, and the October and November run was 

 also less. The sockeye eggs collected there this year totalled but 9,000,- 

 000, as against 27,500,000 four years ago, and 18,000,000 in 1905. The 

 run to Lillooet Lake was less than in any recent year. Finally the run 

 to Harrison Lake was slightly better than in 1909. 



These facts, in my opinion, warrant the conclusion that the number 

 of sockeyes which spawned in the Fraser River watershed this year was 

 not sufficient to make the run four years hence (1917) even approx- 

 imate the runs of either 1905, 1909, or 1913. 



The disastrous effect of the 1913 blockade was manifested 

 on both the fishing and spawning grounds in 1917, since the 

 run in the latter year was the product of the 1913 spawning. 

 The catch of 1917 produced a pack of but 559,732 cases as 

 against 2,401,488 cases, or 76 per cent less than in 1913, not- 

 withstanding the fact that more gear and more fishermen 

 were employed than in 1913 and the price paid for fish was 

 higher. 



Small as was the catch of 1917, too great a proportion of 

 the run of that year was captured; that is, a sufficient number 

 of fish was not permitted to reach the spawning area. In place 

 of the millions of sockeyes that reached Hell's Gate in 1913, 

 only hundreds of thousands reached there in 1917. The ob- 

 struction having been removed, the fish had no difficulty in 



