330 SALMONS' FISHING IN C.^^IDA. 



occupies the stern of the canoe, while the younger talves " the 

 post of honour" forward. The mirrmur of water-falls and rapids 

 drowns their exclamatory iiglis, and the frequent splash that 

 would else disturb the pervading stillness. With steady, stealthy 

 speed the birchen boat enters the rapid, and cutting through its 

 white waters, glides smoothly over the fall and into the " tail " of 

 the pool above, or across the quiet " reach." The blazing torch, 

 stuck in a cleft stake, and leaning over the bow oi' the canoe, 

 glares with dazzhng brightness. The flame and shadow, swayed 

 by ripples, conceal the spearers' forms, and bewilder the doomed 

 s;dmon. Like moths, they sidle towards the fatal hght. Their 

 silvery sides and amber-coloured eye-ljalls glisten through the 

 rippling water. The dilated ej'cs, the expanding nostrils, and 

 compressed lips of the swarthy canoe men, fitly picture their eager 

 and excited mood. A. quick, deadly aim, a sudden violent swirl, and 

 some momentary convulsive .struggles teU the rest. The aquatic 

 captive, with Ijlood and spaivn, and slime and entrails, besmear 

 the inside of tlie canoe. During a single night, from fifty to two 

 hundred .salmon may be thus slaughtered, and half as many more 

 lacerated in their eiforts to escape ; the pools, at such seasons, 

 being too shallow to aflbrd certain safety in retreat. The bed of 

 coarse Ijoughs, the chill and hungry awakening at sunrise, the 

 mixtm-e of peril and figging which Ibrm the return down a 

 swift stream, broken by falls and rocks and rapids, with liere and 

 there a tedious portage, over which several hundred pounds of 

 fish and brriiscd and blistered canoes must be transported, — aU 

 these exertions appear Ijut natmal to Indians, and not worthy of 

 comparison as against the ii'uit of so much toil, C(jnverted at last 

 into six, eight, or ten dollars' worth of provisions and store-goods, 

 or perhaps, but rarely, a denii-johu of home-made rum. The 

 speared salmon are sold to traders at their own price, as the de- 

 terioriatiug mode of capture so nuicli depreciates the fish. The 

 iUegahty of the purchase or exchange, also, often is pleaded as a 



