142 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



solid belt of fish all around the lake. In many places they 

 were in layers of four or five deep, one above the other, and 

 almost touching each other side by side and head to tail. 

 I watched this extraordinary piscine procession with a kind 

 of fascination for fully an hour or more, then taking to the 

 bidarki again, we skirted along the shore, following the 

 course of the fish. Travelling faster than the salmon, we 

 constantly overtook fresh ones, and where the water was 

 shallow they would make such wild rushes, as the canoe 

 passed over them, that they lashed the water up over the 

 sides of the boat, and scores of them would get momentarily 

 forced aground on the edge of the shore by the mere weight 

 of numbers pressing on from behind. The whole time great 

 numbers of fish would keep breaking water, and it was the 

 most extraordinary sight as they did so to see on the surface 

 of the lake (which was as smooth as glass) the countless 

 noses and fins appearing and disappearing, as far as the eye 

 could reach. No fish jumped, except a few just as they 

 entered the lake. It seems wonderful to think that not 

 one of these salmon ever lives to return to the sea, but such 

 is undoubtedly the case. 



No fresh signs of bears being visible around the lake, 

 and evening approaching fast, we decided to return to camp. 

 It took longer to reach the river again than I had calculated, 

 and here, as we crossed the shallow at its head, we went 

 bumping over the backs of the salmon as they came crowding 

 into the lake in their mad rush to certain destruction. 



We were soon flying down stream at the rate of about 

 ten miles an hour, making two or three halts to scan the 

 plain on both sides of the river in hopes of seeing a bear ; 

 but it got so dark that we finally decided to make for camp. 

 As the bidarki rounded a sharp curve coming down a rapid. 



