110 B 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Curing the 

 halibut. 



Salmon. 



Other fishes. 



Pollock. 



women, who, squatted on their haunches, rapidly clean the fish, remov- 

 ing the larger bones, head, fins and tail, and then cutting it into long 

 flakes. These are next hung on the poles of a wooden framework, 

 where, without salt — by the sun alone, or sometimes aided by a slow 

 fire beneath the erection — they are dried, and eventually packed away 

 in boxes for future use. 



There are no rivers of great size on the islands, but many streams 

 large enough to be known as ' salmon rivers ' to the Indians. A run 

 of small red-fleshed salmon occurs about the middle of July up some of 

 the larger streams. These answer no doubt to the fish known on the 

 Fraser Eiver as the suck eye, and much prized. They are, however, in 

 inconsiderable numbers, and not much sought after by the Haidas. 

 About the middle of August a larger species begins to arrive in great 

 numbers, and this run sometimes lasts till January. These fish when 

 they first appear and are still in salt-water are fat and in good condi- 

 tion. They soon begin, however, to become hook-hilled, lean and pale- 

 fleshed. They ascend even very small sti*eams when these are in 

 flood with the autumn rains, and being easily caught and large, they 

 constitute the great salmon harvest of the Haidas. They are generally 

 either speared in the estuaries of the streams or trapped in fish-wiers 

 made of split sticks, which are ranged across the brooks. The various 

 ' rivers ' are the property of the several families or subdivisions of the 

 tribes, and at the salmon fishing season the inhabitants are scattered 

 from the main villages ; each little party camped or living in temporary 

 houses of slight construction in the vicinity of the streams they own. 



It is scarcely necessary to particularize at length the other species 

 of fish used as food, comprising all those abundant in the vicinity of 

 the islands. Trout, herring, flounder, rock-cod, &c, constitute minor 

 items in the dietary. The mackerel and cod are found, but not spe- 

 cially sought after by the Indians, and it is not yet known whether at 

 certain seasons and localities they may be sufficiently abundant to 

 attract commercial enterprise. The spawn of the herring is collected 

 on spruce boughs placed at low water on the spawning grounds, dried 

 and stored away in a manner exactly similar to that practised by most 

 of the coast Indians. The pollock is found on the western coast. It 

 is generally caught in deep water with hook and line, and owing to 

 its fatness is much prized. The Haidas of Gold Harbour or Port Kuper 

 make an annual business of catching these fish in the latter part of the 

 summer. They extract the oil from them by boiling in large wooden 

 boxes with hot stones, and then skimming it from the surface. The 

 oil is carefully stored away, and used as a condiment to dried fish or 

 berries, instead of the oolachen grease, which by this tribe of Haidas 

 is not much in request. 



