2i8 Sport and Life. 



the salmon weighing from 35lb. to 4olb. each, and they were 

 caught by himself."* 



Of the vastness of the supply of salmon that swarmed up every 

 stream, along the littoral of the north-west of America as late as 

 fifteen years ago, it is difficult to give an adequate idea. Though I 

 have never performed the feat of walking across a stream on the 

 backs of fish, which many an old-timer will swear he has done, I 

 have certainly seen the fish so numerous near their spawning 

 ground that nowhere could you have thrown a stone into the water 

 without hitting a salmon. I remember well how surprised I was 

 with what I saw when I first reached the Pacific coast waters. I 

 was travelling in a canoe along the coast of Puget Sound, and had 

 stopped at a little settlement at the mouth of a stream to buy a box 

 of matches, which happened to be the last one the storekeeper had 

 on hand. It cost a "bit," equal to 6d., which was then the smallest 

 coin in currency on the Pacific Slope. When I made some joking 

 remark about the profitableness of selling matches at 6d. a box, the 

 man replied, that, as he usually sold three boxes for a quarter (is.), 

 he would give me a trifle to level up the bargain. Going to a huge 

 fish-drying rack adjoining the store, he came back and presented 

 me with a freshly-caught 25lb. tyhee salmon (or quinnat), as 

 beautiful a fish as you could wish to see anywhere. This gift he 

 valued at less than a halfpenny box of matches. Those days have 

 long passed away, for trans-continental railways connecting the 

 North-west with the Eastern States, a greatly increased population, 

 and lastly, but not least, the scores upon scores of salmon canneries 

 along the coast, waylaying the salmon at the mouth of every larger 

 stream, has not only created markets which formerly did not exist 

 but has caused a great diminution in the supply, particularly in the 

 rivers on the American side of the Line. 



There are one or two points in Dr. Giinther's account to which I 

 would like to refer. 



* I quote literally from the report of the proceedings in the Victorian Times 

 of the following day. 



