Collecting the Ova. 75 



dam. The whole camp collected upon the 

 bridge to witness the attack. It was a sight 

 never to be forgotten. For several rods below 

 the bridge, the salmon formed one black, 

 writhing mass of life. Piled together one 

 above another, they charged in solid columns 

 against the bridge and dam, which trembled 

 and shook continually under their blows. Not 

 daunted by their repeated failures, they led 

 attack after attack upon the fence, one column 

 succeeding as another fell back. Encouraged 

 by their numbers, and urged on by their irre- 

 pressible instinct, they entirely disregarded 

 the observers on the bridge, and struggled at 

 their very best to pass the unwonted obstruc- 

 tion. Finding the fence impassable, many 

 fell back a little, and tried to jump the bridge. 

 This several succeeded in doing, sometimes 

 violently striking tbe men on the bridge in 

 their leaps, and sometimes actually jumping 

 between their feet. 



"For an hour and a half this fierce assault 

 continued, when, exhausted by their efforts 

 and discouraged by many failures, they fell 

 back to a deep hole just below the rapids, 

 arrested for the first time, since the McCloud 



