FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA — FISHES. 319 



South Alaska. It is a small silvery fish, averaging 

 about fourteen inches long, and in general appearance 

 much resembling a smelt. They are the fattest of 

 a-U known fish. Dried they serve as torches; when 

 a light is needed, the tail is touched with a match and 

 they will bum with a bright light for some time. 

 No description can give an adequate idea of their 

 numbers when ascending the rivers from the sea. The 

 water is literally alive with them and appears to be 

 boiling. Many native tribes come to these fisheries, which 

 begin about the third week in March. The first fish is 

 addressed as a chief ; apologies are made to him by the 

 Indians for the necessity of destroying his kindred for 

 the supply of their own wants; a feast is given with 

 appropriate speeches, songs and dances in his honour, 

 and after that the fishing goes on. The fish are caught 

 in wicker baskets, and are dried or smoked as much as 

 their oily nature will allow. The fishery lasts a fort- 

 night or three weeks, and supplies many hundred 

 aborigines with food for a considerable perio,d. 



They enter the Fraser river in millions about the first 

 of May. They are delicious when fresh, smoked or 

 salted, and their oil is considered superior to cod-liver 

 or any other fish oil known. It is of a whitish tint, 

 about the consistency of thin lard, and is a staple 

 food and article of barter between the Indians of the 

 coast and the interior tribes. The fish are taken in purse 

 nets, frequently a canoe load at a single haul, and are 

 piled in heaps on the shore. They are then placed in bins 

 made of plank and having sheet iron bottoms holding 

 from three to five barrels, and are boiled in water about 

 four hours. The concoction is then strained through 

 baskets made from willow roots, and the oil is run into 

 red cedar boxes of about fifteen gallons capacity each. 

 When the run of fish is good each tribe will put up 

 about twenty boxes. 



The surf smelt is almost as numerous as the oulachan, 

 and about the same size, eight inches long. It is an 

 excellent table fish. The very common smaller smelt is 



