FISHERIES OF WASHINGTON AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. 309 



no iuterference among them. Each selects, so far as he can, what seems 

 to him the best location, and may change it from time- to time. As the 

 nets are iioating no fisherman has a clear piece of ground to liimself, 

 but they follow one another in groups over the same ground, and move 

 upstream again after comj)leting their drift or after having made a 

 certain distance. The drifts may vary from 1 to 2 or 3 miles, and are 

 sometimes shorter, dependent upon the abundance of fish and other 

 circumstances. The best conditions for drifting are said to occur at 

 slack high water, whether at night or in the daytime, and most fishing 

 is done at that stage of the tide. The nets then hang more vertically 

 and it is the general opinion that there is also then a better movement 

 of the fish. When the river is high and swift they attempt to fish more 

 along the sides and in the eddies, as the fish seem to seek the places 

 of least resistance, but when it falls they do better in the channels. 



The nets are customarily set at right angles to the current, but as the 

 velocity of tlie latter varies at different points across the channel and 

 eddies frequently occur, the nets do not long remain spread out in the 

 direction intended, but take irregular courses with a general tendency 

 to trend up and down stream. In some places, where bars so exist as 

 to cause the fish to move crosswise of the river, the nets may do best 

 in the latter position, but, as a rule, they are not allowed to head off 

 much before lifting begins. On the outside grounds it is also the prac- 

 tice to set across the current, and some of the most successful drifting 

 is there done by starting a net near the mouth of one of the river chan- 

 nels and allowing it to be carried as far as the current serves, which 

 may be a long way when the river is in flood. 



An opportunity for studying the effect upon the salmon runs of the 

 extensive drift-net fishing now carried on in the Fraser Kiver is afforded 

 by the weekly close times, but practically no attention has been given 

 to the subject. All fishing being prohibited from 6 o'clock Saturday 

 morning until the same hour Sunday evening, the salmon are given an 

 unobstructed passageway up the river during thirty-six hours out of 

 every seven days. The movement of the fish is not, of course, uniform 

 or even continuous throughout the season or any extended part of it. 

 While, therefore, it is impossible, without the necessary observations, 

 to pass definitely upon the matter, yet at the end of each weekly close 

 time it is expected that a proportionally much greater quantity of 

 fish may be found in the neighborhood of New Westminster than at 

 other periods of the week. On Sunday evening, as the time for fishing 

 reopens, the work begins actively about New Westminster, the river 

 being covered by as many boats as can safely operate, and the catch per 

 net being as good as at least the average on the lower drifting-grouuds. 

 Such success does not continue long, and during the remainder of the 

 week comparatively few boats remain on the upper grounds. 



In the interest of the protection of the fish it would be important to 

 ascertain what proportion of the run is removed by the large amount 

 of netting used on the Fraser Kiver during the past few years. Such 



