THE SALMON FISHERIES OF THE LOWER COLUMBIA. 747 
Cne boat now carries three times as much netting as was formerly carried. The gill-nets, 
at first 125 fathoms, are now 350 fathoms long, and they are now made 45 feet deep. 
The sea-lions and seals destroy immense numbers of salmon in the mouth of the Columbia. 
They watch the gill-nets, and take the caught salmon by the throat, devouring that choice morsel 
as it comes through the net, for a salmon is “ gilled” just in front of the middle of the body. 
From a fishery point of view, the seal is an egregious nuisance. 
4, PROCESS OF CANNING. 
The salmon are brought to the wharf usually in the morning, counted and thrown in a heap. 
A Chinaman then takes each, cuts off its head, tail, and fins, and removes the viscera, throwing 
them into a large tub. Some of the cutters become very expert and will clean 1,700 fish per day. 
Next the fish are washed and sometimes scraped with a knife, though the scales are not 
removed. Then they are placed in a trough in which several knives acting like a feed-cutter cut 
the salmon into sections as long as the height of a can. These sections are set on end and split 
by a Chinaman into about three pieces, one large enough to fill a can, the others smaller. 
These fragments are placed on tables and Chinamen there fit them into the cans. Other China- 
men put on the covers, and still others solder them. In some canneries the soldering is done by 
machinery. In this case the cans are rolled along by an iron chain belt and the end rolls in the 
melted solder. Most of the canners think hand-soldering safer, although much more labor is 
required. 
After soldering, the cans are placed in hot water and carefully watched to see if any bubbles 
tise from them indicating a leak in the can. If perfect the can is placed in an iron tank and boiled 
in salt water, it being possible to raise salt water to ahigher temperature than fresh. After being 
boiled about one and one-fourth hours the can is taken out and vented, the pressure within 
driving out all the air through the aperture made. The hole is immediately soldered up, and the 
cooking completed by again boiling (one and one-half hours) in salt-water kettles. If the 
process of cooking were completed before the cans were vented, the pressure would be sufficient 
to burst the cans. 
The cans are afterwards tested by being tapped on the head with a large nail. If the can is 
leaky it gives back a “ tinny” sound easily recognized. This is a very important process, as some 
canneries lose largely by careless testing, the leaky cans afterwards bursting and damaging more 
or less the entire box. The cans are usually tested three or four times, and by different workmen. 
A leaky can is simply sent back to be soldered. 
The cans are all made on the premises from sheet-tin imported for that purpose. The cost 
of the tin can is estimated at one-ninth of the cost of the can of salmon. 
On an average three salmon fill one case of forty-eight 1-pound cans. 
5. LABOR AT THE CANNERIES. 
, In the canneries a white foreman, book-keepers, and a few subordinate overseers are employed, 
and sometimes a few white boys or girls. The bulk of the work is done by Chinese. 
Some of the Chinese, as the fish-cutter, the Chinese foreman, and other very capable persons, 
receive $40 to $45 per month. The most of them receive $1 per day of eleven hours and work 
as wanted, i. ¢., leaving when told and coming at any hour set, only the time in which they are 
actually engaged being counted. : 
