VI.] SALMON. 123 



and solemn as ever, occupying himself in securing his own dinner. 

 He waded leisurely into the stream, just as a bear would, and stood 

 placidly watching the water for his prey. He was evidently an 

 old hand at the business, and would have sniffed disdainfully at 

 any ordinary kelt. No miserable half-dead Garbusa, such as sledge- 

 dogs are fed on, would have contented him. As a bear-dog, he felt 

 such diet to be beneath him, and, like a true fisherman, looked out 

 for the clean fish. There were not many of them, although the 

 half-rotten corpses on the bank spoke of the numbers of salmon 

 that had at an earlier part of the year frequented the stream. I 

 cannot hope to convey to my readers any idea of the enormous 

 multitudes that yearly visit the rivers of Kamschatka. Krashen- 

 inikov, writing more than one hundred years ago, says, " The fish 

 come from the sea in such numbers that they stop the course of 

 the rivers, and cause them to overflow the banks ; and when the 

 waters fall there remains a surprising quantity of dead fish upon 

 the shore, which produces an intolerable stink ; and at this time 

 the bears and dogs catch more fish with theh paws than people do 

 at other places with their nets."-^ "We had no opportunity of seeing 

 the advent of the salmon, owing to the lateness of our visit ; and the 

 death of the fish is of course not due to the subsidence of the 

 water, as he seems to imply. But that the rest of the statement 

 is devoid of exaggeration we had abundant opportunities of proving. 

 None of us, unfortunately, were ichthyologists, and the rapidity with 

 which we were obliged to travel through the country, combined 

 with difficulties of transport and the want of spirit and receptacles, 

 prevented our preserving specunens. In the following paragraphs 

 I have embodied my notes upon the salmon of Kamschatka with 

 the statements we obtained from our hunters. 



Every year the various kinds of salmon arrive at the mouths of 

 the Kamschatkan rivers with surprismg regularity. The date of 

 the advent of these different species extends from May to mid- 



^ " The History of Kamschatka," translated by James Grieve, M.D., Gloucester, 

 1764, p. 143. 



