166 THE SEA. 



The following amusing dialogue on the habits of the salmon once took place between 

 "the Ettrick Shepherd and a friend : 



" Shepherd : c I maintain that ilka saumon comes aye back again f rae the sea till 

 spawn in its ain water/ 



"Friend: 'Toots, toots, Jamie! hoo can it manage till do that ? Hoo, in the name 

 o' wonder, can a fish, travelling up a turbid water frae the sea, know when it reaches the 

 entrance to its birthplace, or that it has arrived at the tributary that was its cradle ? ' 



" Shepherd : ' Man, the great wonder to me is no hoo the fish get back, but hoo they 

 find their Avay till the sea first ava, seem' that they've never been there afore ! ' " 



The canned salmon, now generally popular in England, and which, though some few 

 years ago an expensive luxury, is now within the reach of all, comes principally from the 

 Columbia River, Oregon, and other parts of the North Pacific coasts. In North-Western 

 America the fish is a perfect drug in the market. In a city like San Francisco it sells for 

 eight cents (4d.) per pound. Higher up the coast a large fish is obtained for a quarter to 

 half a dollar. Further north a piece of tobacco or a few needles will purchase a twenty or 

 thirty pound salmon. They are so abundant that the writer has seen them on the beaches of 

 streams and creeks falling into Frazer River, British Columbia, by the score, bleeding, gasping, 

 .and dying, having literally crowded each other out of the water. " Schools " of them are 

 often so densely packed together, that they impede the progress of canoes and boats. 



The salmon fisheries of the Columbia, Oregon, itself one of the grandest rivers in 

 the world, give employment to 4,000 men during the season, and nearly all the canned 

 salmon consumed in Europe comes from it.* There are dozens of rivers on the north- 

 west coast equally available, and the business even now is in its infancy ; while salted, 

 pickled, or smoked salmon, hardly ever reaches England from there at all. As will appear, 

 there are splendid opportunities on that coast for hundreds of new-comers, it may 

 almost be said with or without capital. It is needless to state that the former is always 

 to be preferred. Where isn't it? 



Some ten or a dozen varieties of salmon and salmon-trout, Mr. Murphy tells us, enter 

 the rivers of North-Western America, but only one is selected for commercial purposes. 

 'Two of the most delicate-eating varieties the silvery-white and spring salmons are never 

 packed in tins, because their schools are less abundant and the fish themselves smaller. The 

 hook-nosed and dog salmons are rarely eaten, except by Indians; while the man has not 

 yet been discovered who would tackle the hump-back. The blue-back, or weak-toothed 

 salmon, an inferior fish also, is only exported to the Sandwich Islands, where the natives 

 are said to really prefer its lean and fibrous flesh to the more delicately-flavoured and 

 succulent kinds. The salmon principally caught is distinguished by the Indians as the 

 " Tyhee," or chief ; it is abundant, large, and most excellent eating ; it possesses those 

 <( all-round " qualifications which particularly fit it for commerce and cooking. It is the 

 Salmo quinnat of the naturalists. 



The fishery season on the Columbia lasts from the beginning of April to the end of 



* The reader interested in further details will do well to peruse J. Mortimer Murphy's " Rambles in Xorth- 

 "VVestern America." 



