SALMON LEAPS. 167 



July, and the fisheries extend along the river for a hundred miles or more. Some of the 

 curing establishments employ their own men to tend the nets, while others purchase from 

 fishermen, the price for fish weighing from fifteen to forty pounds ranging from 25 cents 

 to 50 cents (approximately one to two shillings). These prices would seem ridiculously low 

 were it not for the abundance of the fish and the ease with which they are taken. A 

 party of four men may secure from 300 to 2,000 salmon in twenty-four hours ! Take the 

 lowest estimate 300 at 25 cents. This gives 75 dollars (or 15) to divide among the four 

 fishermen. But this would be a very poor catch. A thousand fish are no uncommon haul. 

 This at the lowest price paid would give 250 dollars (50) to be divided. Of course there 

 is the wear and tear of boat and fishing gear to be considered. 



Large quantities of the fish are caught in weirs. The Indians, also, knowing that 

 the salmon avoids currents if possible, build out into the river from the shore, for ten or 

 a dozen feet, walls of stone a few inches in height. The salmon crowd into the quieter- 

 water caused thereby, and are easily captured in nets or by spearing. They are so 

 numerous in places that the Indian can often flap them out of the water, by a sudden 

 dexterous jerk of his paddle, to his squaw on the beach, who then immediately knocks 

 them on the head and guts them. 



At the curing houses, mostly owned by Americans, the labour is chiefly performed by 

 Chinamen under the superintendence of white men. " John^ quickly and cleverly guts 

 the fish and cuts off its head ; then cuts it into chunks, which are boiled, first in salt and 

 afterwards in fresh water. Next the tins are filled, and soldered down, all but one little 

 hole in their tops. The tins are then immersed in boiling water, and when every particle 

 of air is excluded, a few drops of solder effectually seal them up till wanted for the 

 table. The process is in effect the same employed in the preservation of meats and fruits- 

 in tins. 



Many British and Irish waterfalls are celebrated for their salmon leaps. In Inver- 

 ness-shire at Kilmorack, at Ballyshannon in Donegal, and Leixlip near Dublin, in Pem- 

 brokeshire and elsewhere, the leaps are noted, and at many of them there are osier baskets- 

 placed below to catch the fish when they fail and fall. Sportsmen have even shot them, 

 on the wing as it were, in their leap. At the Falls of Kilmorack " Lord Lovat conceived 

 the idea of placing a furnace and frying-pan on a point of rock overhanging the river. 

 After their unsuccessful effort some of the unfortunate salmon would fall accidentally into 

 the frying-pan. The noble lord could thus boast that the " resources of his country were 

 so abundant, that on placing a furnace and frying-pan on the banks of its rivers, the 

 salmon would leap into it of their own accord, without troubling the sportsman to catch 

 them. It is more probable, however, that Lord Lovat knew that the way to enjoy salmon 

 in perfection is to cook it when fresh from the water, and before the richer parts of the 

 fish have ceased to curd." 



In our own land, the Tweed, Tay, Spey, and Severn, are all noted rivers for salmon ; 

 the Tay fish sometimes weigh sixty pounds. It is a curious fact that the full-grown 

 salmon never feeds in the rivers. " Juvenile experience on the part of the fish, recurring 

 as a phantasm, causes them to snap at a shining artificial minnow or a gaudy fly, but 

 they never rise out of the water ; the bait must dip to them, and when hooked they shake 



