298 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



streams. It is difficult to picture in the mind the abundance of these 

 fish anil the mad abandon with which they hurl themselves over obsta- 

 cles, wounded, panting, often baffled, but always eagerly pressing on 

 up the streams there to spawn and die. In some of the pools they 

 gather in such numbers as to almost solidly pack the surface. When 

 there is a waterfall barring their progress they may be seen leaping at 

 the fall endeavoring to ascend it, often as many as six or more being in 

 the air at once. The iiesh at first hard and firm on contact with fresh 

 water soon loses its color and palatableness, so that the sooner they 

 are captured the better. The species of the first run vary along the 

 coast. They are comparatively small, do not remain long, and do 

 not furnish the bulk of the supply, although at the canneries now 

 erected as many as two to five thousand have been known to be caught 

 with one haul of the largest seines. About the middle of August the 

 Tyee ,or King salmon arrives, the run often lasting the year out. 

 When they first appear they are fat, beautifully colored, and full of 

 life and animation; but soon are terribly bruised, their skin becomes 

 pale, their snouts hook-shape 1, their bodies lean and emaciated, and 

 their flesh soft, pale, and unwholesome. In Wrangell Narrows is a 

 waterfall of about 13 feet. At high tide the salt water backs up the 

 stream and reduces this fall to about 8 feet, but never less even at 

 spring tides, but the King salmon leaps the falls and numbers of them 

 may be found in the fresh water above. The writer has deposited in 

 the Smithsonian Institution several instantaneous photographs of leap- 

 ing salmon taken by himself at this locality, but it is unnecessary to 

 reproduce them in this connection. The whole of the territory on the 

 northwest coast adjacent to the Indian villages is portioned out 

 amongst the different families or households as hunting, fishing, and 

 berrying grounds, and handed down from generation to generation and 

 recognized as personal property. Privilege for an Indian, other than 

 the owner, to hunt, fish, or gather berries can only be secured by pay- 

 ment. Each stream has its owner, whose summer camp, often of a per- 

 manent nature, can be seen where the salmon run in greatest abun- 

 dance. Often such streams are held in severalty by two or more families 

 with equal privileges of fishing. Salmon are never caught on a hook ; 

 this method, if practicable at all, being too slow. At the mouth of the 

 streams they are speared or caught in nets. High up the streams they 

 are trapped in weirs and either speared or dipped out with dip-nets. 

 The Indians are beginning now to use seines and to work for salmon on 

 shares, but the older ones are very conservative, and cling somewhat to 

 primitive methods in a matter even so important to them as the capture 

 of salmon, their chief food supply. 



Halibut — These may be taken at almost any season in certain locali- 

 ties, while they are more nuujerous during certain months in others. 

 The Indians make the subject quite a study, and know just where all 

 the banks are and at what seasons it is best to fish. Often villages are 



