1 84 



RECREA TION. 



stream comes down, that on which there 

 was formerly a mill. The dam was still 

 there, and it was so high that it is ques- 

 tionable if either salmon or trout ever 

 succeeded in jumping it ; but the water 

 is so clear and cold, and spreads out so 

 invitingly into the bay, that hundreds of 

 fish run up to the dam and linger in the 

 pool where the water falls, looking for a 

 chance to get up the stream. 



In the little gravel-beds away up the 

 accessible streams, hundreds of thou- 

 sands of eggs are deposited during the 

 spawning season every year. When the 

 resulting fishes have absorbed all the 

 nourishment which nature provided for 

 their infantile state, and their fins have 

 taken shape and are of some use, they 

 begin to drift idly down the stream and 

 in the course of time find themselves out 



feast, but dingy, dusky, sad-eyed fish, 

 that spurned all allurements in the 

 shape of food, and seemed to have but 

 one object in life — to get up the stream. 

 But the trout were hungry, and when 

 the anglers got fairly down to their 

 work, they found it rare sport in- 

 deed. The captain of the cutter 

 landed more than any of the others. 

 He numbered his catch by the days of 

 our years, for there were three-score 

 and ten. The others caught many; 

 and as for the medicine man, he 

 took the least of them all ; yet he 

 caught the greatest, for one of his fish 

 measured nineteen inches from snout to 

 tail. He broke the record at Sitka that 

 day. 



When long shadows of the great firs 

 began to stretch across the bay, the 



BLACK SPOTTED TROUT. — salt/10 mykiss. — AS FOUND IN ALASKA. 



in the bay. Here they may live well for 

 a time on herring-roe from off the fir 

 branches which squaws place out in the 

 shallows at low water,* but in time, like 

 Barkis, they go out with the tide ; past 

 the submerged rock in front of the vil- 

 lage, where boys are trolling for bass, 

 around the head of Japonski and out 

 between the islands to the sea. By and 

 by they come back and make their way 

 up the streams to accomplish the mis- 

 sion of their lives. 



On that June afternoon the four sports- 

 men from Sitka found the pool below 

 the dam at the old Russian mill full 

 of fish. Beside the salmon trout, there 

 were many of their relatives, the 

 salmon ; but how changed ! They were 

 no longer the shining, silver salmon, on 

 which the Slavonic native delights to 



*Note. After roe has been deposited freely on these 

 branches they are taken up, dried, smoked, and so kept 

 for winter food. 



party grew weary of the sport, so they 

 put up their tackle and went back 

 to the boat, and to the reserve supply 

 of bait, which they had brought along. 

 This bait bore strange and cabalistic 

 marks, such as vodka, muck-a-muck, and 

 koo-tchi-noo ; nevertheless they devoured 

 it eagerly and with evident tokens of 

 delight. When it was finished they 

 embarked once more and headed for 

 the wharf at Sitka, taking with them 

 the fish to show to their wives and little 

 ones, and to the doubters in the ward- 

 room of the Alliance, for there was no 

 fish market, by the way. It was grow- 

 ing late, and the evening gun at the 

 governor's house had long since sent 

 the echoes flying from hill to hill, to tell 

 the sun it was time he should set ; yet 

 he still lingered above the horizon as 

 though loath to go down behind the 

 bergs and floes about the pole. 

 Shadows were creeping up the snow 



