FISHERIES OF WASHINGTON AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. 293 



to appear on this shore, but all the other species are reported to be 

 taken. 



Point Roberts has figured most conspicuously in the Washington 

 fishery, and the largest catches have been made in its vicinity. The 

 principal reef-net ground of the entire region lies directly off its south- 

 east corner, a large kelp-covered ledge, to which the Indians have 

 undoubtedly resorted for many generations, and which has always been 

 the cause of much contention among the several neighboring tribes. 

 The perpetual right to fish upon it, in common with other inhabitants 

 of the territory, was secured to the Indians by treaty with the United 

 States in 1855, and while formerly regarded solely in the light of a rich 

 collecting-ground, where their own needs could readily be met, it 

 afterwards became the source of much revenue in their dealings with 

 the whites. So far as the records show, the Indians have at no time 

 resided jiermanently on Point Koberts. It has been their custom to be 

 present there only during the fishing season, chiefly of the sockeye 

 salmon, from about July 1 until early in September. In recent years 

 their number has varied from 150 to liOO, though sometimes reaching 

 250. Their canoes in active operation have been as many as 15 to 20, 

 but lately the number has greatly fallen off through the intervention 

 of the whites. Their drying racks formerly covered a considerable 

 area, but they are now small in extent and have been entirely driven 

 from Cannery Point, their principal location in more prosperous days. 

 After the completion in 1894 of the continuous line of traps commanding 

 the approaches to the big reef, its value for reef-net fishing seems to 

 have been in great part destroyed, and the Indian catches declined so 

 much in consequence as to render the old-time occupation practically 

 unprofitable. The primitive methods are making way for those of civ- 

 ilization, and the process has not been wholly devoid of certain elements 

 of injustice, which are by no means peculiar to this locality. 



While the visits of the Indians to Point Roberts have had refer- 

 ence mainly to the salmon, they were at one time in the habit of going 

 there in March, during some years but not continuously, in search of 

 dogfish, of which they are said to have secured large catches. Those 

 who went at that time might remain until the salmon season opened. 

 They made use of a rude sort of gill net set along the flats, in which 

 the dogfish became entangled, and also of trot lines having perhaps 

 from 150 to 200 hooks apiece. 



The Indians have also taken sturgeon in Boundary Bay, have fished 

 therewith hook and line in the fall for the silver salmon, and have used, 

 by drying, the large clams which are very abundant along its shores. 



There are no authentic records of the earlier fishing by the whites 

 about Point Roberts, though it is well known that they were attracted 

 there many years ago by the abundance of the salmon. In the begin- 

 ning, however, it is probable that their supplies were chiefly obtained 

 by purchase from the Indians. During the period when the Hudson 

 Bay Company was active on the west coast, agents of the company 



