584 
MEDICINAL AND ECONOMIC VALUE 
its importance to the Indians, or the still more useful purposes to which both 
the fish itself and its oil might be applied, without fear of contradiction be- 
ranked as one of the most valuable products of the western shores of America. 
Many of the earlier fur-traders and adventurers refer to it in enthusiastic terms 
under its Chinook name of Oulachan or Eulackou* and give accounts of its 
abundance in the Columbia River early in this century. All readers of Wash¬ 
ington Irving’s charming ‘ Astoria,’ cannot fail to remember his description of 
it. It belongs to the family Salmonidse , and is usually classed in Gerard’s genus 
Tkaleicthys , but as I believe that that genus is separated from the older one 
of Osmerus on very insufficient grounds, I have preferred to designate it as 
Osmerus pacificus. The synonymy and specific characters will therefore stanch 
as follows 
Osmerus pacificus ( Salmo (Mallotus)pacificus ), Richardson Fauna Boreali- 
Americana; Tkaleicthys Stevensi , Gerard, Gen. Rep. on Fishes; Tlialeicihys 
pacificus , “ Grd.” Cooper and Suckley Natural History of Washington Terri¬ 
tory, Plate LXXY. figs. 1-4; Osmerus pacificus, (Rich.), Ayres, Proceedings. 
Cal. Acad. Nat. Science, ii. 64. Head subconical and pointed. Mouth large;; 
posterior extremity of maxillar bone extending to a vertical line drawn posteriorly 
to the orbit. Eye rather small. Adipose fin placed opposite the posterior por¬ 
tion of the anal, which is rather elongated. The insertion of the ventral fins is 
situated considerably in advance of the anterior margin of the dorsal. Scales- 
moderate, subelliptical. Dorsal region greyish-olive ; middle of flank yellow¬ 
ish-orange, dotted with black ; belly yellowish, unicolor ; upper sides and sur¬ 
face of head greyish ; fins unicolor. 
2. The Oulachan , or Eulachon , is a small delicate-looking fish, about the size- 
of a smelt, and not unlike it, semipellucid, and with fine scales. On or about 
the 24th of March,—at nearly the same time each year,—it enters the northern 
rivers, and the southern ones a little later. It was once abundant in the Co¬ 
lumbia, but that stream being now diskirbed by the traffic of steamers, it is 
only now in exceptional years that they are caught there in any quantity. In 
Fraser River, and in most of the rivers on the coast of British Columbia, they 
are still found at that season (March) in greater or smaller quantities; but it is 
in the Naas River, falling into the Pacific, in lat. 54° 40' N., that the Eu¬ 
lachon is found in the greatest quantities, and it is to its capture in that stream 
that these notes chiefly relate. The fish comes up from the sea into the fresh 
water for the purpose of spawning, but, unlike most of its allies,—the salmon 
proper,—on that coast, returns to the sea again, and is not seen until the fol¬ 
lowing year. During that season they swarm in inconceivable shoals, and I 
can well believe that the Indians indulge in no hyperbole when I have heard 
them say that their canoes have been lifted in the water by the countless swarms, 
of fishes. Their arrival is at once heralded by flocks of Laridce and other 
marine birds swooping down to seize upon them, and during the whole of tlm 
fishing season the screams of the gulls vie with the shouts of the Indian fishers. 
3. By long custom made and provided for, certain northern tribes have a 
vested right of fishing the Eulachan on the banks of the Naas, and certain other 
equally numerous and powerful tribes are prohibited from enjoying this privi¬ 
lege, and are compelled to buy their oil from their more fortunate neighbours. 
Accordingly, some days before the expected advent of the fish in the river, the 
Indians assemble from far and near to the number of several thousands, in order 
that they may take up their proper camping-grounds on the banks. Men, 
* Boss Cox calls it “ the sweet little anchovy ” (‘ The Columbia River,’ etc., vol. i. p. 105). 
It is also spelt hoolalcan and Ulichun. Alexander Itoss calls it the “fathom fish,” because 
strung- on threads in their dried condition, they were sold by the fathom (‘Adventures of First 
Settlers on the Columbia Fiver,’ p. 91). 
