WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 



345 



getting by. They are seen to dart out of the foam beneath and reach 

 about two-thirds of the height, at a single bound : those that thus 

 passed the apex of the running water, succeed ; but all that fell short, 

 were thrown back again into the foam. I never saw so many fish 

 collected together before ; and the Indians are constantly employed in 

 taking them. They rig out two stout poles, long enough to project 

 over the foaming cauldron, and secure their larger ends to the rocks. 

 On the outer end they make a platform for the fisherman to stand on, 

 who is perched on it with a pole thirty feet long in hand, to which the 

 net is fastened by a hoop four feet in diameter: the net is made to slide 

 on the hoop, so as to close its mouth when the fish is taken. The mode 

 of using the net is peculiar : they throw it into the foam as far up the 

 stream as they can reach, and it being then quickly carried down, the 

 fish who are running up in a contrary direction, are caught. Some- 

 times twenty large fish are taken by a single person in an hour; and 

 it is only surprising that twice as many should not be caught. 



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V/LLLALii 



The river at the falls is three hundred and fifty yards wide, and its 

 greatest fall twenty-five feet. When the water is not very high, the 

 rapids begin some distance above the falls. Some of the Indians are 

 in the habit of coming down in canoes to the brink of the falls, where 

 they secure themselves by thrusting down poles in the crevices of the 



vol. iv. 44 



