THE WESTERN WATERS. 297 



Trout, afford their principal subsistence to the Esquimaux, and 

 to the adventurous fur-traders, whose posts are dotted down, 

 hundreds of leagues apart, thi'oughout those inhospitable 

 countries. 



Again, throughout the whole of that huge territory lately- 

 won at the sword^s point, by the Saxon energy of young 

 America, from the degenerate children of old Spain, through- 

 out the British possessions, and even in those far northern 

 shores which the Russian holds upon this western continent, 

 the estuaries and courses of those waters which pour into the 

 Pacific can boast not only the true Salmon, but many fine, 

 distinct varieties. Many years will not probably elapse, taking 

 into consideration the incessant stream of immigration which is 

 almost overflowing Northern California, and remembering the 

 restless, enterprising energy of the Anglo-American race, before 

 railroads, even to the Pacific, across the western prairies, and 

 through the gorges of the Rocky Mountains, will open this new 

 world to the adventurous angler, and the dwellers of the 

 Atlantic cities will make their trips to the Salmon rivers of the 

 Pacific with less trouble, and in less time, than it took their 

 sturdy Dutch forefathers to visit Albany, now reached with ease 

 in a few hours. 



For the present, however, it is needless to discourse of those 

 western waters, since time must pass before any species of game 

 will be pursued for sport on the shores of the Pacific, or killed 

 except to afford subsistence to a population occupied wholly 

 in the greedy race for riches. To the fisherman, therefore, the 

 Eastern States and the north-eastern British provinces afford 

 the only accessible Salmon fishing ; and I should strongly urge 



