SALMONOIDE.E. 217 



salmon are thrown upon the beach, the women take out their entrails and hang 

 them by the tails on poles in the open air. After they have remained in this situa- 

 tion a day or two, they take them down and cut them thinner, and then leave them 

 to hang for about a month in the open air, when they will have become entirely 

 dry. They are then put into store-houses, which are built on four posts, about ten 

 feet from the ground, to prevent animals from destroying them, and, provided they 

 are preserved dry, they will remain good for several years." — Harmon's Travels 

 in North America. 1820. 



Captain Dixon, who visited the North-west coast of America in the years 1786 

 and 1787, on a trading expedition, in company with Captain Portlock, mentions 

 that they took great numbers of tine salmon with the seine in Cook's River, or 

 Inlet (lat. 60°), in the month of July, and that in the end of June, in the following- 

 season, they saw large quantities hung up to dry by the natives of Norfolk Sound, 

 a harbour formed by the Island of Sitka, where the Russian Fur Company's esta- 

 blishment of New Archangel has been since erected. Eschscholtz speaks of only 

 one sort of salmon as frequenting that Sound, and remarks that it is well-flavoured, 

 but Captain Dixon thought it inferior to the kind which he obtained in Cook's 

 River. 



After the preceding pages had gone to the press, I received a letter from Dr. 

 Gairdner, of Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River, of which the following is an 

 extract, " My duties at Vancouver prevent me from collecting many Columbia 

 fish, as I have no leisure for journeys through the country. Such, however, as I 

 happen to have by me, I now send you with great pleasure, for your work on North 

 American Zoology ; they are entirely fresh-water species, my travels not having as 

 yet extended to the coast. I subjoin a short description of each, which I made 

 from the recent specimens, the characters, particularly those dependent on colour 

 and dimensions, being liable to alteration by the spirits. The early dispatch of 

 the vessel leaves me no time for transcribing the anatomical details." Dr. Gaird- 

 ner had used the precaution of wrapping the specimens in tow previous to putting 

 them in spirits, and of soldering them up in a tin case, which was protected by a 

 cask, yet all this care, I regret to say, did not insure them against the accidents of 

 a long voyage. The tin case received some injury, and became so leaky as to suffer 



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