484 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[J ANT ART 19,1882. 



BYE- WAYS OF THE NORTHWEST. 



KLKYBNTH TAPER. 



THE year 1881 will long be memorable in the annals of 

 British Columbia salmon fisheries. As indicated in h 

 previous letter, a good run was looked for in the river this- 

 season, but up to the middle of July no fJBh had been taken. 

 The boats had, however, been drifting for them for a week 

 previous, a.id the presence at the mouth of the river of 

 great numbers of bonaparte gulls, or, as they are called here, 

 hoolachan gulls, was regarded by the fishermen as a sun 

 sign that the fish were at hand. About the twentieth of Jul} 

 salmon began to be taken, aud it was not long before the run 

 had so increased that it became impossible for the canneries 

 to use all the fish caught, and a portion of the boats were 

 taken off . Early in August the catch was from 75,000 to 

 80,000 fish per diem, wilh only one-half the boats employed. 

 Toe canneries were all run at their fullest capacity, and 

 the enormous catch was the talk of the town. At all hours 

 of the day and night some of the steamers employed in col- 

 lecting the fish from the small boats which do the drifting, 

 were tied up at the wharves, unloading their glittering freight, 

 and great piles of the shapely fish were to be seen at the 

 landing-places all along the river. No matter how fast these 

 pile3 were removed, they were almost at once renewed. The 

 fish were mainly the sockeye salmon and averaged from 

 eight to ten pounds in weight, but there were not wanting 

 specimens of the uuianat, the so-called spring salmon of the 

 Eraser, which ran from fifty up to seventy, and even eighty 

 and one hundred pounds. 



The nets used in the capture of the fish are ordinary drift 

 gill-nets with a 5 7-8 inch mesh, about forty meshes deep and 

 one hundred fathoms in length. They are cast off in the 

 usual manner and drift down stream with the current, meet- 

 ing the advancing salmon which are swarming up the river. 

 From Ewen's cannery 1 procured a record of Ihe catch of a 

 few of the boats on one or two average days, which is as 

 follows : 



August 0, five boats took 970 fish. 



August 9, six boats took 1,067 fish. j 



August 10, six boats took 1,492 fish. 



August 11, six boats took 1,538 fish. 



Which gives an average of about 244 fish, or rather mie 

 than 2.000 pounds to the boat. All the canneries employ 

 steamers lo patrol the fishing-grounds, and as soon as a boat 

 has a load, it proceeds to its steamer and transfers' its catch, 

 the fish being counted as they are received. In this way no 

 time is lost by the fishermen, who are enabled to keep their 

 nets in the water almost all the time. When the steamer has 

 a full load, she proceeds to her wharf, where by means of 

 iron forks and pikes, the salmon are tossed on to the plat- 

 forms. A steamer will land from 8,000 to 20,000 fish each 

 trip. All the canneries are at the water's edge, and the fish 

 are no sooner landed, than the work of preparing them, be- 

 gins. An Indian throws them into a large tub of clear 

 water, from which they are taken one by one, by a women 

 who places the fish on a table before which she stands, and 

 with a large knife removes the head ; she then slides it 

 along to a man who, by a single cut of his knife, 

 removes the entrails, and cuts off the fins and tail. 

 The ofial is pushed aside into a gutter which leads 

 into a chute, and that into the river. The fish is now 

 passed on into a tub of clean water, and after being 

 washed is carried to the cutting table. Here there is 

 a cam armed with knives about four inches apart, which 

 cuts the fish into lengths, and the p'ecss are then 

 placed in the cans, which are filled up even with the top. 

 These are then passed to another set of workmen, who put 

 on the covers, and then- go to the solderer. Several new in- 

 ventions have been recently patented for soldering on the 

 covers, so that the rendering of each can perfectly air-ligbt 

 occupies but a small fraction of a minute. Twelve dozen 

 soldered cans are placed in a shallow tray made of strap 

 iroD, and this tray is suspended by a chain in a vat of boil 

 ing water. The cooking occupies hut a few minutes, and 

 on its removal from the water, the rack is placed on a table, 

 and a Chinaman with a small wooden mallet taps each can 

 on the top. The expansion of the contents has made the 

 cover bulge outward, and by tapping it with the mallet the 

 operator is at once able to determine whether the soldering 

 is perfect,>nd Ihe can air-tight, or not. If on being tapped, 

 the cover yields noticeably, it is evident that there is an 

 escape for the air, and the can is re jected. The operator 

 then reverses his mallet, which is armed on the other end 

 with a small tack, and with a light blow punctures each chd, 

 allowing the escape of the air and steam confined in it, and 

 often of a portion of the juices of the fish. As soon as this 

 is c'ooe, another workman seals up this aperture with fresh 

 solder, and the cans are ready to be labeled, boxed, and 

 shipped to a market. The amount put up at. I his cannery 

 was about 500 cases each day, each case holding, on au aver- 

 age, ten fish. The run of sockeye salmon lasts usually from 

 four to six weeks, and during this time the factory is run 

 from four o'clock a. >r, to seven or eight o'clock P. m., and 

 the work goes on without interruption on Sundays aB well as 

 week days. 



Notwithstanding the enormous numbers of fish which are 

 caught, it was said by old fishermen that in their rpinion 

 not one out of ten thousand of those that enter the river 

 were taken. That the proportion of escaping fkh is large, 



cm be inferred from the great numbers that are secured, and 

 that without any special effort, by the Si washes and others 

 farther up the river. Two million fish is a very small esti- 

 mate for the number taken to supply the New Westminster 

 canneries during the fishing season, yet further up the river 

 the salmon are scooped up in purse nets by the Indians 

 ilmost as fast as the net can be swept, through the water. 



An excursion up the Eraser River to the town of Yale, 

 • he head of navigation of the lower Fraser, had been planned 

 by Mowitch, and taking one of the comfortable river steam- 

 ers, one afternoon, we set out with a charming party ol 

 friends. The river near its mouth is very muddy, thus resem- 

 1 ling the Missouri, but as progress is made up its course, it 

 becomes less and less turbid until when Yale is reached, the 

 water, though not yet limpid, has lost its muddy appearance 

 and is beautifully green like that of Niagara. The current 

 i i everywhere very rapid, and at certain points, where the 

 channel is narrow and the banks steep, its violence is so great 

 that it seems as if it would be impossible for the vessel to 

 overcome its force. The valley of the river for some distance 

 above New Westminster is rather broad and the bottom ex- 

 tensive and covered with a superb growth of large cotton- 

 woods. The mountains are not very high, seldom exceeding 

 4,000 feet, and only occasional patches of snow are to be seen 

 on them. Their sides are for the most part very steep, and 

 we saw frequent evidences of extensive landslips, which had 

 laid bare great areas of dark-red rock, which served as beauti- 

 ful contrasts to the prevailing dark-green of the foliage. Sal's 

 Peak is a noteworthy mountain of great beauty, and Silver 

 Peak, another fine mountain, takes its name from a silver 

 mine whkh has been opened near its summit. In many 

 places along ihe river are to be seen the evidences of the min- 

 ing operations which began here twenty years ago. The 

 gravel and sand bars, and often long stretches of the bottom 

 land, were in many places mere piles of cobblestones, which 

 had accumulated after the finer sand and the soil bad been 

 washed for the precious metal which it contained. Many of 

 the bars had been worked over a number of times ; all of 

 them twice. Here, as in most other sections of the country 

 where placer mining has been extensively carried on, the 

 white man had gone over the ground at least once, and had 

 been followed by the more pai ient and perservering China- 

 man, who found in the abandoned claim enough to reward 

 his industry. 



On the way up the river I talked with a Mr. Hunter, a civil 

 engineer of great experience, who had secured a grant from 

 the Dominion Government for a mining enterprise of great 

 iuterest to me. From Quesnelle Lake a river of the same 

 name runs to join the Fraser, and its bed is supposed to be 

 very rich in gold— so rich that it is said that the Chinamen, 

 anchoring their boats in the river, and dredging up the dirt 

 from the bottom, make good wages from washing it. Mr. 

 Hunter has obtained the right to mine this river, or so much 

 of it as he can make accessible by turning the water from the 

 bed, so that it can be reached and worked in the usual way. 

 His plan is ingenious, but very simple. He purposes building 

 a dam across the river near Quesnelle Lake, by which, during 

 three or six months of the year, the water can be held back 

 in the lake, so that the volume flowing through the river 

 channel shall be greatly diminished. Of course, the practical 

 success of the scheme depends on a good many contingencies, 

 but if the dirt is as rich as is supposed, it seems likely to be 

 very profitable. 



During our passage up the river we passed at frequent in- 

 tervals the fishing camps of the Siwashes, and could see that 

 they were taking great ciuantities of fish. Their drying 

 stages— thickly hung with the bright-red flesh of the salmon 

 —stood out in bold relief against the green of the deciduous 

 trees or the cold gray of the rocks. Only a small portion of 

 eiich fishis saved by the Indians, the greater part being thrown 

 back into the river. By a single slash of his knife the Siwash 

 cuts away the whole belly from the throat back to a point 

 behind the anal fin and extending up on the sides as far as 

 to where the solid flesh begins, and this portion he retains, 

 throwing the whole shoulders, back and tail into the river 

 again. The Indians of the coast, however, save the whole 

 fish. 



The method employed in taking the salmon is sufficiently 

 simple, and yet owing to their abundance very effective. A 

 purse net is arranged to run by means of wooden rings on a 

 wooden oval, about four feet long by three in breadth, to 

 which a long handle is attached, the frame resembling that 

 of a gigantic landing net with an oval ring. When the im- 

 plement is to be used a string is pulled, which spreads the 

 net, and it is swept through the water with a alow motion, 

 against the current. The string which holds it open is 

 passed by a loop over the little finger of the left haud, and, 

 as soon as the fisherman feels anything strike the net, is 

 loosed, the rings run together, and the object is held securely 

 in the bag. The fish, in their efforts to stem thecurrent, pass 

 close to the steep banks, where the force of the water is 

 least and the eddies help them along. The fishing is for the 

 most part done from stages, which are built of poles and ex- 

 tend a few feet beyond the rocky points which here and 

 there project out into the stream. The right to occupy 

 these points descends from the father to the oldest son of 

 the family. 



A short distance below Yale is the to vn of Hope, a small 

 settlement beautifully located in the wide bottom. It is 

 from this point on the river that the trail for Kooteuay, dis- 

 tant about 500 miles, starts, and all the mail and express 



matter goes by this route to this inland settlement. Hope 

 was founded during the early days of the mining excitement, 

 and when it was thought that the diggings of the Fraser 

 were inexhaustible. Great expectations were entertained 

 of ihe future importance of the place, and an active specula- 

 tion was carried on in building lo's. But the tide of emi- 

 gration passed on as the washings on the lower river ceased 

 io pay; Hope was left behind, and the owners of town 

 lots will be obliged to wait long for the return of the money 

 invested in them. 



We found Yale an orderly and respectable town. It was 

 on a Sunday that we reached there, and that the Sunday after 

 pay day, and yet we saw no fighting on the streets, and but 

 few drunken men, probably not more than one in 

 twenty. It is from this point that the Canadian Pacific R. 

 R. is being built eastward, and this is thus the supply point 

 and the locality where all the laborers employed on the road 

 congregate during holidays. Liquor saloons, of course, 

 abound, and at frequent intervals one stumbles over a 

 drunken man who is sleeping off the effects of his potations 

 unheedful of the clamor that is going oa abou: him. Yale 

 is cosmopolitan. You m'jy see here men of all races, but 

 English, Scotch and French predominate. There are a few 

 Germans and Scandinavians and some Americans. Of 

 course Indians are numerous, as are also Chinamen. Negro 

 cooks and washerwomen jostle Mexican packers and 

 muleteers, while mixed bloods, whose parentage can scarcely 

 be conjectured from their countenances, abound. From this 

 point stages run to Lytton, where the river is again practi- 

 cable for steamers, and this is the route taken by those who 

 go to the mines at Caribou. 



I had learned that there was at Yale a taxidermist who 

 had quite a collection of bird Ekins, and as soon as the 

 town was reached I set out to find him. In this I was 

 unsuccessful, but I managed to obtain access to his 

 collection, which was in some respects interesting. 

 Among the species noted were the cat bird (Oaleoswpu, < 

 aaroUnenshj, Maryland yellow throat (Qodhlt/pis triifras), 

 evening grosbeak (Ile-iperiphona wspertina), pine grosbeak 

 (Ptnkvla enuelcator), a species of Leucoslicte, snow bunting 

 (Plectrophmies nivalis), black-headed grosbeak (Zamelod/n 

 raelanocephala), lazuli finch (Passtrina anwna), white- 

 tailed ptarmigan (Laqopus leucurus), in winter plumage, gray 

 snipe or d witch (Macrorhamphui griseus) in summer dres3, 

 and many others. After looking over the birds, which, how- 

 ever, had to be inspected through glass, owing to the absence 

 of the owner, I walked along the railroad track two or three 

 miles up the river and into the canon. The scenery litre is 

 very beautiful, the stream rushing along between high 

 mountains, which rise steeply from its very banks. 



Just above Yale, at the entrance of the canon, i3 a large 

 rock, or, perhaps, more properly, a small island, which 

 divides the current into two streams of nearly equal size. 

 About th's rock there is told an Indian legend of some 

 interest. The salmon fishing has always been ihe most im- 

 portant event of the year to the Fraser River Indians, as it 

 provides them with their winter food, and, indeed, with 

 provisions for almost the entire year. The advent and cap- 

 ture of the first salmon of the season was, therefore, eagerly 

 looked for, and in old times wa9 celebrated with solemn 

 religious rites. This first fish was regarded, not as the 

 property of its captor, but as belonging to the Good Spirit. 

 It was, therefore, as soon as caught, taken to the Ciiief of the 

 tribe, and delivered into his keeping. A young girl was I hen 

 chosen, aud, after being stripped naked and washed, cross lines 

 in red paint, representing the meshes ofanet, were drawn upon 

 her body, and she was then taken down to the water's edge, 

 and, with solemn ceremonies, the net was washed off. This 

 was supposed to make their nets fortuna'e. Prayers were 

 then made to the Deity, the salmon was cut up, a small por- 

 tion sacrificed to him and the remainder divided into small 

 pieces, one of which was givea to each individual of those 

 present. The story of the rock runs somewhat in this way. 

 One season the first salmon caught was taken by a woman, 

 and she, being very hungry, said nothing about its cap'ure, 

 but devoured it at once. This was neither more nor less 

 than sacrilege, and for the crime she was changed by the 

 Great Spirit into tDis rock, which was placed where we 

 now see it, to remain for ever as a warning to wrong- 

 doers. Some believe tha', although changed to stone, she 

 still retains her power of thought and feeling, and that each 

 year she is obliged to endure the misery of seeing, re-enacted 

 about, her, the scenes in which, as a child, a young girl, and, 

 at last, a mother, she had taken part. Each year, too, she must 

 see her people change, little by little, their habits ; each year 

 perceive their numbers lessening, and the land that once 

 w T as all theirs passing into the hands of strangers to her race 

 and to the soil. Already the thunder of the blasting ha3 

 shaken her, although so steadfast, already the scream of the 

 locomotive and the rattle of the paddle wheel have sounded 

 in her ears. Some day au enterprising eng'.neer, who wishes 

 to improve the navigation cf the Fraser, will introduce a 

 charge of dynamite into some crevice of the rock, and the 

 poor sinner, whose punishment has sure'y by this time 

 expiated her crime, will pass from our sight and at last find 

 rest. 



At a point above the first tunnel, an old Siwash was fish- 

 ing with a purse net, catching a salmon at every s*eep that 

 he made. I clambered down the rocks lo h's st»g', and, 

 after watching him for a while, borrowed his net and fished 

 while he dressed those already caught. In about five 



