the Pacific salmon. 55 



manned by two men the boatman and the net-handler. In 

 the stern of the skiff a net of three-inch mesh, two hundred 

 and fifty yards long, and six feet deep, is carefully coiled. 

 To the brail-rope of this net empty five-gallon coal-oil cans 

 are attached, one hundred feet apart. Arriving at the place 

 selected for the day's work, the net-handler stands erect in 

 the boat, and quickly pays out the net over the stern, the 

 boatman meantime pulling for all he is worth. When the 

 net is once launched in the river, it is allowed to drift with 

 the current for half an hour, and then the skiff, which has 

 drifted alongside, is rowed to the end of the net that was first 

 placed in the river, and the process of drawing the net and 

 killing the fish begins. If during the run of the Saw-qui, a 

 fish will be found every few feet, caught in a mesh and held 

 fast by the gills. The fish, in endeavoring to go up-stream, 

 force their way in spite of every seeming obstruction, and 

 when they meet the net try to force themselves through it. 

 They succeed in forcing their heads through, but cannot put 

 their bodies through the meshes of the net. In attempting 

 to withdraw their heads, the twine becomes entangled in their 

 gills, and the fate of poor Saw-qui is sealed. He is lifted 

 into the boat and dispatched with a stout bludgeon. The 

 net-tender then disentangles the fish from the net, and throws 

 it into a crate, or on the bottom of the boat. Should there 

 be more Salmon in the net than the skiff can carry, the nearest 

 boat is signaled and comes to the aid of this crew, and the fish 

 are taken at once to the cannery. 



In 1879, while employed as an engineer on a tug belong- 

 ing to a cannery, myself and a friend took a boat and a net 

 one evening, and made a "drift." The result was four hun- 

 dred and forty-three Saw-qui, that would average eight 

 pounds. As the boatmen had concluded their labors for the 

 day and had gone home, we were in a plight. Our skiff 

 would not hold one-half the Salmon, and was soon loaded to 

 the gunwale. We drifted down the river, and fortunately met 



