FISHERIES OF WASHINGTON AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. 257 



The upper limit of tidal influence in the river is in the neighborhood 

 of Sumas, about 55 miles from the mouth, but brackish water is said 

 not to be perceptible much if any above 'New Westminster. These 

 limitations are for the spring tides during the periods of low water. 

 The freshets counteract the influence of the sea in proportion to their 

 height, and at their maximum carry the fresh water, at least on the 

 surface, as far as the river mouths and into the Gulf of Georgia beyond. 

 The ordinary rise and fall of the tide is about 12 feet at the mouth of 

 the river and 4 or 5 feet at New Westminster. 



A marked feature of the freshet season, having an important bearing 

 on the salmon tisliery, is the intense clouding of the river by sediment, 

 a flue grayish silt, which remains long in suspension and gives a light 

 slaty color to the water. The deposition of this material is going on 

 continuously throughout the lower level portion of the river, causing 

 shifting bars aud banks, which, with their accompaniment of snags, 

 are a source of great annoyance to navigation. But the silt is also 

 carried out beyond the river, where it is adding to the delta formation 

 and building up a wide bank or shoal along the shore, from Point Grey 

 to Point Roberts. This bank is broadest directly in front of the river 

 mouths, of which the principal ones maintain their channels through 

 it into the deeper waters of the Gulf of Georgia. 



In the early spring, when the quinnat begin to run, the river is com- 

 paratively clear, so that in the daytime the gill nets can be more or 

 less plainly detected by the fish. Later the sediment appears and 

 continues in all its intensity during June and July and into August, 

 when the river begins to clarify. In the opaque water the nets may be 

 used as effectively by daylight as at night, and it is during this season 

 that the great sockeye run takes place, the run on whicli the canneries 

 mainly depend for their immense pack. Day and night the nets are in 

 the water, not only within the boundaries of the river, but over the 

 outside bank and sometimes beyond its margins where the discolored 

 water extends for several miles in all directions. 



Aside from the Fraser there are numerous small rivers belonging to 

 this drainage,, of which the greater number and the larger ones are on 

 the east side, taking their rise on the slopes of the Cascade Range. 

 Those north of the Fraser are little known, but they end in large inlets. 

 In Washington the most conspicuous is the Skagit, which is navigable 

 for 60 miles, the other more important ones, beginning at the north, 

 being the Nooksack, Stillaguamish, Snohomish, Dwamish, Puyallup, 

 and Nisqually. These reproduce on a small scale the principal char- 

 acteristics of the Fraser, the mountain features, the terminal lowlands, 

 the deltas, and the flood season with its turbid waters. On the west 

 side of Puget Sound and along the Strait of Juan de Fuca the streams 

 are still smaller, scarcely more than creeks at the most, the highlands 

 lying closer to the coast and greatly restricting the width of the drain- 

 age area. The inner side of Vancouver Island has only two rivers of 

 any moment, the Oowichan and Nanaiiuo. 



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