FISHING DURING THE EEINDEER-PEEIOD. 221 



Tribes on the Mackenzie and the rivers Anah-yoe and Tacoutche. It is the same 

 in California, according to Mr. Edward F. Chever (" The Indians of California," 

 ' American Naturalist,' vol. iv. no. 3, May 1870, pp. 138, 141), and in Columbia 

 and Vancouver, according to Mr. J. K. Lord ('The Naturalist in Vancouver's 

 Island and British Columbia,' 2 vols. 8vo, London 1866) and Mr. Bogg (" The 

 Fishing Indians of Vancouver's Island," ' Memoirs read before the Anthropo- 

 logical Society of London,' vol. iii. 1870, p. 260). 



According to a note with which we have been favoured by our friend M. A. Pinart, 

 who also has traversed these little-known regions, the Salmon at certain seasons 

 of the year is so common in the Fraser River and its tributaries that there is no 

 need of fishing-implements ; but the natives stand in the shallow parts of the 

 river, and with their hands throw out the fish to the banks, where the women 

 dispatch them. 



Mr. Lord reports the same fact thus : " Quoting from Dr. Scouler, ' Obser- 

 vatory Inlet (which I should imagine to be just such an inlet as Puget's Sound) 

 was frequented at the time by such myriads of the Salmon that a stone could not 

 have reached the bottom without touching several individuals, their abundance 

 surpassing imagination to conceive.' He goes on to say that in a little brook 

 they killed sixty with their boarding-pikes " (' Naturalist in Vancouver ' &c., 

 p. 56). Lord himself states that "Thirty Salmon an hour is not an unusual take 

 for two skilled Indians to land on a stage," with their hoop-nets (op. cit. p. 69). 



These Salmon, so abundant in North-west America, belong to several species 

 at least in Vancouver and British Columbia. At Victoria in June and July great 

 numbers of Salmo quinnat of Richardson arrive, and another species (S. Gaird- 

 neri of Richardson) at the same time. These are the summer Salmon ; but the 

 autumn has its Salmon almost as plentiful, though not equal in quality. A little 

 after S. Gairdneri comes S. paucidens, Richardson ; in October the S. lycaodon 

 of Pallas ; and last of all S. proteus, Pallas. 



Unfortunately we have no materials for the study and comparison of the osteo- 

 logy of these different Salmons ; hence it is impossible for us to refer any of the 

 Salmon-bones found in the Reindeer Caves to one rather than another of these 

 species. Indeed we have been unable to recognize any difference between the 

 Salmon vertebrae from the Caves and those of the living Salmo solar, Linne, 

 although we have taken care to compare vertebrae from the same region and of 

 the same size, derived from individuals presumably of the same age. 



We know that the Salmon has a very wide geographical distribution, the same 

 species being met with in Scandinavia, Russia, Germany, France, Galicia, Britain, 



2n 



