AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 67 



has a pronounced milky tinge imparted by the gla- 

 ciers from which its feeders come, away back in the 

 Cascades. It is a famous salmon stream, and thou- 

 sands of these noble fishes, of mammoth size, that 

 had lately gone up the river and into the small 

 creeks to spawn, having died from disease, or hav- 

 ing been killed in the terrible rapids they had to 

 encounter, were lying dead on every sand bar, 

 lodged against every stick of driftwood, or were 

 slowly floating in the current. Their carcasses lined 

 the shore all along the lower portion of the river, 

 and the hogs, of which the Indians have large num- 

 bers, were feasting on the putrid masses as vora- 

 ciously as if they had been ears of new, sweet corn. 

 The stench emitted by these festering bodies was 

 nauseating in the extreme; and the water, ordinarly 

 so pure and palatable, was now totally unfit for use. 

 I counted over one hundred of these dead fishes on a 

 single sand bar of less than half an acre in extent. 

 Cruising amid such surroundings was anything but 

 pleasant, and I was glad the current was slow here 

 so that, though going up stream, we were able to 

 make good progress, and soon got away from this 

 nauseating sight. 



About a mile above the village we rounded a bend 

 in the river, where it spread out to nearly a quarter 

 of a mile in width, and on a sand bar in the middle 

 of the stream, sat a flock of geese. I picked up my 

 rifle and took a shot at them, but the ball cut a ditch 

 in the water nearly fifty yards this side, and went 

 singing over their heads into the woods beyond. 

 They did not seem (o enjoy such music, and taking 

 wing started for some safer feeding-ground, carrying 



