FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 



117 



Salmon Fishing at the Month of the Columbia River, 



Oregon. 



The season of the sahiion fisheries of the Columbia river commences in 

 April, and is over by the end of Jul3^ The fish are taken in tide-water by 

 nets and traps, in immense quantities, as they ascend the river fresh from 

 the ocean. They are cured fresh, in one and two pound cans, and cured 

 by pickle in barrels and half-barrels. The Columbia salmon is very fat, 

 and of peculiarly fine flavor. Salmon fishing is also carried on at the 

 mouths of the Rogue, Umpqua, Coquille, and Nehalem rivers, where the 

 catches, however, serve principally to supply the home consumption. 



The salmon pack on the Pacific coast during the past season, 188 1, has 

 been the largest ever known. The following, from the San Francisco 

 Journal of Commerce, are the particulars : Columbia River, 540,000 cases ; 

 Sacramento River (Spring), 140,000 do.; Sacramento River (Fall), 40,000 do.; 

 Fraser River, 110,000 do.; miscellaneous — outside rivers, 30,000 do.; total, 

 860,000 cases. The total pack for the past four years has been as follows : 

 1881, 860,000 cases; 1880, 679,495 do.; 1879, 539,600 do.; 187S, 638,000 

 do. It is thus seen that 188 1 leaves all other years far in the shade, being 

 nearly 27 per cent, higher than that of 1880, the greatest previous year. 



The first white men, as we learn from the "Astorian," who fished in the 

 Columbia river to the extent of making a business of it, were Italians, who. 



