SALMON-FISHING AS AN INDUSTRY 



King for three thousand dried salmon for the use of his 

 soldiers. Bergen, too, on the Norwegian coast, traces 

 its fishery back to mediaeval times. 



The West Canadian and United States fishery, with 

 which we shall first deal, is the newest, and at the same 

 time the most profitable and most productive of any; 

 more than half a million cases of tinned fish being ex- 

 ported every year from round about the Fraser River 

 alone. 



The annual migration of these fish is very remarkable. 

 They enter the rivers in spring, as soon as the waters 

 have become more or less swollen by the rains, swimming 

 in great numbers and usually in mid- stream and near the 

 surface. At the beginning of the migration the shoals 

 seem nervous and easily frightened; so much so that a 

 floating spar or bit of timber, or any shock such as the 

 blasting of rocks near at hand, has been known to drive 

 them out to sea again. But, once well in the stream, 

 their conduct is reversed ; nothing will daunt them ; 

 nothing will turn them back ; rapids, currents, and whirl- 

 pools are matters of little moment to them ; they will 

 spring from the low level to the top of a cascade ten or 

 fifteen feet high. Their perseverance is astounding. On 

 reaching a cascade, a fish, making a bent spring of its 

 body by taking its tail in its mouth, will suddenly shoot 

 upwards, higher, perhaps, than the upper level, yet often 

 at an insufficient angle to enable it to reach it, and back 

 it falls with a crash, only to " get breath " and then make 

 another, possibly successful, attempt. 



Sometimes, after a score of fruitless tries at jumping 



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