THE SALMON FISHEB. 21 



them, and all for lack of the simple knowledge of 

 liabitat and methods of fishing employed by the na- 

 tives. The Schwatka observation party of 1883, on 

 the north coast of Alaska, did far better, for he im- 

 pressed into important service his natural taste for 

 angling and his experience as an observer of fish 

 .habits and local devices. As has been stated above, 

 lie found an abundance of food in fact, the profuse- 

 ness of aquatic life in that region is unequalled else- 

 where according to his assertion. But Mr. Schwat- 

 ia's observations have been confined to a segment 

 only of the polar belt. Very few persons outside of 

 ihe Hudson's Bay Fur Company's agents know any- 

 thing about the fish of the Arctic coast, and they 

 are not usually scientific men, able to differentiate 

 or classify species. We may be permitted to say, 

 liowever, that the subject of Sub- Arctic Salmonidse 

 is one .which has engaged the attention of the 

 writer for thirty years, and that in the course of that 

 period he has been able to gather, from his own 

 personal visits and from extended inquiry, a good 

 deal of substantial and accurate information, whereby 

 the distribution of the Salmon from ocean to ocean 

 las been measureably ascertained and the species 



