The Salmon of the Pacific Slope. 203 



back into the river,* warnings that were, alas, left unregarded by 

 the hosts below. Yet further up the river the naked son of the soil, 

 with his unerring salmon spear, waylays those that have escaped 

 the seine, trap, and wheel. In past years, before the introduction 

 of the nets at the mouth of the river, the Indians were in the habit 

 of rigging up primitive but quite ingenious traps at the highest falls 

 that exist on the Columbia, i.e., the Kettle Falls, which are about 

 675 miles from the ocean. These falls consist of a series of 

 cascades, the highest of which varies between i2ft. and 2oft. of 

 sheer fall, according to the stage of the water, and we have here 

 what is generally acknowledged to be the highest fall up which 

 salmon are known to leap. In the old days, when Dr. Lord, the 

 well-known naturalist, who accompanied the Boundary Commission, 

 which carried the International boundary line just forty years ago 

 through an entirely wild and uncivilised country, visited the spot, 

 one could see hundreds of the larger salmon in the air at the same 

 moment, leaping or attempting to leap the falls, for few fish 

 succeeded at the first attempt in stemming the impetuous flood that 

 swept the fish back into the deep pool at the foot of the falls. The 

 Indians used to drag great trees down to the water at the brink of 

 the falls, and place them in such a manner that a portion of the 

 trunk protruded over the falls, and here, within a few inches of the 

 water, they would hang frail-looking basket work scoops, that would 

 catch all but the strongest fishes as the force of the water whirled 

 them back. 



I would like at this point to revert to the question, how high 

 can salmon leap. The Kettle Falls have always been considered 

 among the highest in the world ascended by these fish ; indeed, if 

 one visits them at a low stage of the water it seems impossible 

 that any fish could leap those perpendicular walls, quite 3oft. in 

 sheer altitude. That a 4olb. Columbia salmon who, in the course 

 of his long journey of upwards of 650 miles from the Pacific 



* Of late years most of the offal of canning establishments is used as manure 

 or treated for the oil which this waste matter contains. Where settlers are near 

 pigs are fattened on it. 



