AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 71 



going anywhere in particular, but just loafing 

 around, enjoying themselves. They were wild, but, 

 owing to the water being so rough and rapid, we 

 frequently got within two or three feet of them 

 before they saw us, and the Indians killed two large 

 ones with their canoe poles. Occasionally we would 

 corner a whole school of them in some little pocket, 

 where the wa,ter was so shallow that their dorsal fins 

 would stick out, and where there was no exit but by 

 passing close to the canoe. When alarmed they 

 would cavort around like a herd of wild mustangs 

 in a corral, until they would churn the water into a 

 foam; then, emboldened by their peril, they would 

 flash out past us with the velocity of an arrow. 

 They were doing a great deal of jumping; frequently 

 a large fish, two or three feet long, would start across 

 the stream, and make four or five long, high leaps 

 out of the water, in rapid succession, only remain- 

 ing in the water long enough after each jump to gain 

 momentum for the next. I asked Charlie why they 

 were doing this, if they were sick, or if something 

 was biting them. 



' ; No, ' ' he said. ' ' Play. All same drunk raise 

 hell!" 



These salmon run up the rivers and creeks to 

 deposit their spawn, and seem possessed of an insane 

 desire to get as far up into the small brooks as they 

 possibly can. They frequently pursue their mad 

 course up over boiling, foaming, roaring rapids, and 

 abrupt, perpendicular falls, where it would seem 

 impossible for any living creature to go regardless 

 of their own safety or comfort. They are often found 

 in dense schools in little creeks away up near their 



