SALMON-FISHING AS AN INDUSTRY 



at such a time, would be unwholesome if not poisonous. 

 The females have become almost black ; the cheeks of the 

 males are striped a red-gold, the body covered with the 

 same tint, and the lower jaw strangely elongated. 



The spawning has occupied about a fortnight, at the 

 end of which time the fish lie about in the stream taking 

 the return journey by easy stages, till their strength is 

 recruited. Meanwhile the ova lie undisturbed, covered 

 up till about the end of the following March, when they 

 may be said to be hatched and have become " fry " ; tiny, 

 ugly things, pale brown, crossed by a few grey marks. 

 The fry will remain in the river for perhaps another year 

 and, by then, they have become grey-green on the back 

 and silvery below, are nearly six inches long, and are 

 known no longer as fry but as "smelt." 



After two or three months in the sea they reappear at 

 the river-mouths weighing from three to four pounds, 

 which weight rapidly increases as they ascend the stream. 

 At this stage they are called " grilse.*" Grilse remain up- 

 stream till the next winter, when they spawn and hence- 

 forth are dignified by the title of salmon. 



The bulk of the American salmon comes from two 

 rivers the Fraser and the Columbia, and from a huge 

 land-locked, natural harbour Puget Sound, which, a 

 hundred miles long, runs southward from Juan de Fuca 

 Strait into the State of Washington. Thus the salmon 

 fishery of that quarter may be said to be divided almost 

 equally between ourselves and the Americans, Canada 

 having the Fraser, and the States the Columbia ; while 

 the fish that leave the mouth of the Fraser become 



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