EXTRACTS. 297 



down-stream. When there is not a natural eddy they sometimes create one by 

 throwing out a rude wing-dam. They select eddies because it is there the salmon 

 congregate to rest themselves. At the head of the eddy they erect fishing-booths 

 over the water, by planting slender poles in the bottom of the river, and lashing 

 others over them in a light and artistic framework, with a floor a few feet above 

 the water, and regular rafters overhead, on which brushwood is spread for a 

 screen against the sun. In one of these really picturesque booths an Indian 

 sleeps at night, with a string leading up from the net to his fingers, so that when 

 a salmon begins to flounce in it he is awakened. Sometimes the string is attached 

 to an ingenious rattle-trap of sticks or bones (or a bell nowadays), which will 

 ring or clatter, and answer the same purpose. 



" They also spear salmon from these booths with a fish-gig furnished with 

 movable barbs, which after entering the fish spread open, and prevent the with- 

 drawal of the instrument. Another mode they sometimes employ is to stand on 

 a large bowlder in the main current where the salmon and the little skeggers 

 shoot in to rest in the eddy when ascending the stream, whereupon they scoop 

 them up in dip-nets. Again they construct a weir of willow-stakes nearly across 

 the stream at the shallows, leaving only a narrow chute wherein is set a funnel- 

 shaped trap of splints, with a funnel-shaped entrance at the large end. Ascend- 

 ing the stream the bold, resolute salmon shoots into this, and cannot get out. 

 Sometimes the weir reaches clear across, the stakes being fastened to a long 

 string-piece stretching from bank to bank. The building of one of these dams 

 is usually preceded by a grand dance, and followed by a feast of salmon. The 

 greater portion of the catch is dried and smoked for winter consumption. 



"Along the coast they engage largely in smelt-fishing. The fisherman takes 

 two long slender poles which he frames together with a cross-piece in the shape 

 of the letter A, and across this he stretches a net with small meshes, bagging 

 down considerably. This net he connects by a throat with a long bag-net floating 

 in the water behind him, and then, provided with a strong staff, he wades out 

 up to his middle. When an unusually heavy billow surges in he plants his staff 

 firmly on the bottom, ducks his head forward, and allows it to boom over him. 

 After each wave he clips with his net and hoists it up, whereupon the smelt slide 

 down to the point and through the throat into the bag-net. When the latter 

 contains a bushel or so he wades ashore and empties it into his squaw's basket. 



"About sunset appears to be the most favorable time for smelt-fishing, and 

 at this time the great bar across the mouth of the Klamath presents a lively and 

 interesting spectacle. Sometimes many scores of swarthy heads may be seen 

 bobbing amid the surf like so many sea-lions. The squaws hurry to and fro 

 across the bar, bowing themselves under their great conical hampers, carrying 

 the smelt back to the canoes in the river, while the pappooses caper around 

 stark naked, whoop, throw up their heels, and playfully insinuate pebbles into 

 R38 



