

The Salmon of the Pacific Slope. 223 



in a wholesale manner of the only food with which nature in many 

 of the interior gameless regions has provided him, starvation could 

 be avoided only by becoming homeless wanderers. And this is 

 what has happened to thousands during the past quarter of a 

 century. Only those who have been among them can realise the 

 inexpressible misery of the lot which our boasted civilisation has 

 thrust upon beings who, a lifetime ago, were " monarchs of all they 

 surveyed." 



Considering that some perfectly incorrect information con- 

 cerning salmon fly-fishing has been disseminated by the English 

 press, it is as well to repeat what really everyone at all interested 

 in the matter does know, i.e., that the salmon of the Pacific coast 

 does not take the fly.* 



Quite good sport with the spoon can be enjoyed near Victoria, 

 and round the coast of Vancouver Island, when the various 

 species of salmon come in from the open Pacific and the rui> 

 commences. It is nothing unusual to catch half a dozen big salmon 

 in a short afternoon, and if you are in a canoe you will get all the 

 fun you want before you have these big 'uns lying dead in the 

 bottom of your canoe. 



I cannot refrain from concluding this chapter with an account 

 of a very curious fish said to belong to the salmonoids, and which 

 is believed to exist in some of the mountain lakes of Oregon, at 

 least it does so in the imagination of journalists, who have given 

 much space to accounts of it. The following appeared in the San 

 Francisco Examiner : 



<A wonderful fish is becoming numerous in Goose Lake. It is called 

 by some the " greenback " fish, for it is certainly an inflationist. It has the 

 power to fill itself with air until it becomes very much like a round ball. 

 Of evenings about sundown they may be seen playing on the surface of 

 the water. They will swell up by taking in the air, and the wind will blow 

 them over the lake. They reflect all the colours of the rainbow, and when 



* The " steel-head," which, as already said, is really a trout, will not 

 infrequently rise to the fly in fresh water. 



