150 OBSERVATIONS ON A SALMON RIVER 



by heavy fines, had succeeded in driving 

 away the Japanese poachers, who for sev- 

 eral years openly defied the law, and 

 poached the salmon with every known de- 

 vice from dynamite to illegal meshed nets. 



Discovery Strait is a stretch of salt water, 

 an arm of the Pacific ocean, which separates 

 Vancouver and Valdez Islands, and is about 

 two and one-half miles wide. If it were not 

 for the great current and strong tides that 

 flow through the straits it would remind one 

 of a Swiss lake, for you are surrounded by 

 hills beautifully wooded with splendid fir- 

 trees, and snow mountains show plainly in 

 the distance. 



The best fishing is along the shore of 

 Vancouver Island, a stretch of water one 

 mile below and half a mile above the sand- 

 bar at the mouth of the river. The current 

 is so swift that it is almost impossible to fish 

 except at the change of the tide or at half- 

 tide. As the mode of fishing is trolling with 

 a spoon, it is impossible to make enough 

 headway when the tide is running strong, 



