270 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



there were several mounds on the sandy margin. 

 These were caches made by the bears, filled with sock- 

 eye salmon, and in the brush at the back were more 

 caches, stored with fish for future use. The eagles, 

 fish-hawks, crows, mallard ducks and gulls were having 

 a ghoulish feast upon the dead and decaying fish. 



In a canoe run of eighteen miles, which I made in 

 two days, while standing up and paddling in the bow 

 of the boat, the sight that met my gaze was really 

 sickening. The bottoms of the deep pools were lined 

 with the bodies of dead salmon, in places lying cross- 

 wise on top of each other, and the sandy beaches were 

 strewn with the now putrid fish. 



Hundreds had been caught on the willow brush as 

 they floated down on the head of a high rush of water 

 that occurred two weeks before, and were now sus^ 

 pended and slowly rotting away a foot or more from 

 the running water underneath. 



The crows spy a dead salmon more quickly than any 

 other birds that I have seen ; they at once pluck out 

 the eyes and leave the balance of the fish until it is in 

 a decaying state. Then they gorge themselves until 

 they can barely fly. 



As the waters of the rivers recede the sand-bars catch 

 the dead fish in multitudes, and the air becomes vitiated 

 by the stench, which in some places is almost unbear- 

 able. As Shakespeare says, it is " a very ancient and 

 fish-like smell ; a kind not of the newest," while the 



