65 
journey overland, describes it thus: “Salmon is so abundant in this 
river, that these people have a constant and plentiful supply of tliat 
excellent fish. To take them with more facility, they had, with great 
labour, formed an embankment or weir across the river for the 
purpose of placing their fishing machines, which they disposed both 
above and below it. I expressed my wish to visit this extraordinary 
work, but these people are so superstitious, that tliey would not allow 
me a nearer examination than I could obtain by viewing it from the 
bank. The river is about fifty yards in breadth, and by observing a 
man fish with a dipping net, 1 judged it to be about ten feet rleep at 
the foot of the fall. The weir is a work of great labour, and contrived 
with considerable ingenuity. It was near four feet above the level 
of the water, at the time I saw it, and nearly the height of the bank 
on which I stood to examine it. The stream is stopped nearly two- 
thirds by it. It is constructed by fixing small trees in the bed of the 
river in a slanting position (which could be practicable only when 
the water is much lower than I saw it), with the thick part down- 
wards; over these is laid a bed of gravel, on which is placed a range 
of lesser trees, and so on alternately, till the work is brought to its 
proper height. Beneath it the machines are placed, into which the 
salmon fall when they attempt to leap over. On either side there is 
a large frame of timber-work six feet above the level of the upper 
water, in which passages are left for the salmon leading directly into 
the machines, which are taken up at pleasure. At the foot of the fall 
dipping nets are also successfully employed.”^ 
Whatever its construction, whether of timber, brush, or stones, 
the community weir, like the buffalo or caribou pound, was a powerful 
factor in welding the different families of Indians into a single, social 
unit. Every man contributed his labour to the building and mainten- 
ance of the weir or pound, and every man was entitled to his share 
of the booty. The master of a buffalo pound apportioned the meat 
equally among all the tents except his own, which nevertheless 
received the largest share tlirough the gifts offered by each household 
in payment of his services. At the weirs each man retained whatever 
fish he caught, but allowed no family to remain in want. The Indians 
realized that every man had his days of ill-luck when the animals and 
1 Miickenxio ; Op. cit,, p. 32l)-I, Cf, Siiiirm ; ‘Mournal of a Voyagf’ fi'oin Itip Rooky Mountains 
to the Pacific Coast, 1808,” in Masson: (3]i. cit., scries i, jn 220. 
