The Days of a Man 



D88o 



has shared the rapid growth of Seattle and its neigh- 

 bors Tacoma, Bellingham, and Everett. 



One day we worked at Saanich Arm, a deep fjord 

 of clear water some miles to the north of Victoria. 

 A potiatcb A great native feast or potlatcb, which drew In- 

 dians from all over the island, was then going on 

 at the head of the arm. During a potlatch the host 

 not only feeds all his guests, but with excess of 

 hospitality gives away every movable thing he has. 

 Afterward he slowly recuperates by attendance at 

 similar functions arranged by his neighbors. 



When we attempted to turn over to them the 

 surplus of our net, the Indians scorned mere surf 

 fish and herring, all we had to offer, their epicurean 

 taste demanding salmon, halibut, or eulachon. 



The five 

 salmon 



From the standpoint of science the most im- 

 portant result of our year on the Pacific Coast was 

 the making of an accurate list of the shore fishes, 

 about 400 in all, eighty of which were new to science. 

 On the economic side, by far the weightiest matter 

 was the tracing of the characters of the five species 

 of salmon in Pacific Coast rivers, especially the 

 Columbia, Eraser, and Sacramento. 



These are popularly known as the King Salmon or Chinook 

 Oncorkynchus tscbazvytscha; the Red Salmon Oncorbyn- 

 cbus nerka; the Silver Salmon Oncorhyncbus kisutsch; the 

 Calico Salmon Oncorhynchus keta; and the Humpback 

 Oncorhynchus gorbuscba. 1 All spawn but a single time, usually 



1 Stefan Petrovich Krascheninikov, in his " Description of Kamchatka and 

 the Kuril Islands" (1764), mentioned the Russian vernacular names of the 

 five kinds of salmon, and in 1792 Walbaum made picturesque use of them in 

 scientific nomenclature. 



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