30 AMERICAN FISHES. 



Trout, Carp, &c., in considerable numbers. But when these begin tc 

 fail, they return to their villages and subsist on the small fish which 

 they dried at the lakes, or on Salmon, should they have been so pro- 

 vident as to have kept any until that late season ; or they eat herbs, 

 the inner bark or sap of the cypress tree, (pinus JSanksiana,) berries, 

 &c. At this season, few fish of any kind are to be taken out of the 

 lakes or rivers of New Caledonia. In this manner the natives barely 

 subsist, until about the middle of August, when Salmon again begin to 

 make their appearance in all the rivers of any considerable magnitude ; 

 and they have them at most of their villages in plenty until the latter 

 end of September, or the beginning of October. For about a month 

 they come up in crowds, and the noses of some of them are either 

 worn or rotted off, and the eyes of others have perished in their heads ; 

 yet in this maimed condition they are surprisingly alert in coming up 

 rapids. These maimed fishes are generally at the head of large bands, 

 on account of which the natives call them mee-oo-tees, or chiefs. The 

 Indians say that they have suffered these disasters by falling back 

 among the stones, when coming up difficult places in the rapids which 

 they pass. The Carriers take Salmon in the following manner. All 

 the Indians of the village assist in making a dam across the river, in 

 which they occasionally leave places to insert their baskets or nets of 

 wicker-work. These baskets are generally from fifteen to eighteen 

 feet in length, and from twelve to fifteen feet in circumference. The 

 end at which the Salmon enter is made with twigs in the form of the 

 entrance of a wire mouse-trap. When four or five hundred Salmon 

 have entered this basket, they either take it to the shore to empty out 

 the fish, or they take them out at a door in the top, and transport them 

 to the shore in their large wooden canoes, which are convenient for this 

 purpose. When the Salmon are thrown upon the beach, the women 

 take out their entrails and hang them by the tails on poles in the open 

 air. After they have remained in this situation a day or two, they take 

 them down and cut them thinner, and then leave them to hang for 

 about a month in the open air, when they will have become entirely 

 dry. They are then put into store-houses, which are built on four 

 posts, about ten feet from the ground, to prevent animals from destroy- 

 ing them; and, provided they are preserved dry, they will remain 

 good for several years.' Harmon's Travels in North America, 1820." 



