XVIII 

 FRESH WATER FISHING 



WHEN many years ago an English officer was 

 sent to Oregon — the Great Emerald Land 



— to report to the English Government upon its 

 value and resources, he is said to have written these 



words : " Country not worth a d n. Salmon 



won't take the fly ! " 



And this curse — for so an angler will regard it 



— still clings to the lovely streams and rivers of 

 the north. The salmon refuse to rise to the fly. 

 However, they snap at the glittering spoon and 

 other baits, and once hooked, a salmon in condition 

 will prove as game as the fish of Canada, Scotland, 

 or Norway. 



On the Pacific Slope there would seem to be five 

 species of salmon : the king-salmon (the tyhee or 

 quinnat), the dog-salmon, the blueback, the hump- 

 back, and the silver-salmon. Dr. Jordan, President 

 of the Leland Stanford Junior University, and an in- 

 ternational authority upon ichthyology, says : " Of 

 these species the blueback predominates in the Eraser 

 River and in the Yukon River, the silver-salmon and 

 the humpback in Puget Sound, the king-salmon (or 

 quinnat) in the Columbia and the Sacramento, and 

 the silver-salmon in most of the streams along the 

 coast. Only the quinnat has been noticed south 

 of San Francisco. Of these species the king-salmon 



