OF THE OULACHAN. 
5S5 
women, and children come,—it is the herring-fishing of the Indians, and all 
can be employed. A general holiday prevails, and tribes vie with tribes, families 
with families, in dress and feasting, and show their joyousness in a thousand 
different ways. Families who have not met for twelve months now meet, and 
the Eulachon or YgTiuh (almost unspellable, and certainly unpronounceable} 
fishing is looked forward to front one year’s end to the other as a time of gos- 
siping, courting, and general merry-making. In a few days, however, the fish 
begin to make their appearance, and now all are on the alert and all idling 
is at an end. The first shoal, as I have said, come into the river, from the 
24th to the 27th of March, and stays three days. These are so exceedingly 
fat that they cannot be cooked in a pan, for they will “blaze up” like a mass 
of oil. Out of these the best portion of the oil is made. In about three 
days these begin to disappear, and are succeeded by a second shoal, not so 
large or so fat, and these again in a day or two by the third and last shoal, 
which is poorer, and are dried for winter use, being sufficiently free from oil 
to permit of this. So fat are these last even, that if lighted during the dry 
state they will burn like a candle, and are often used as such by the natives, 
hence they are sometimes called the “ candle-fish.” The river during the time 
of fishing presents a busy scene, covered with canoes sweeping the fish in, 
while others filled are landing and being unloaded by the women and children, 
again wildly to rush back to share in the harvest. Ashore the scene is not- 
less vivid. Fires are blazing and pots boiling, and boxes being filled with 
the oil, while in and around and all over, prevails an amount of unctuousness 
indescribable,—a greasiness of which it is impossible to conjure up the faintest 
idea ! The fish are chiefly taken by nets (in the Naas) but myriads get washed 
ashore and are caught by the old women and children and kept as their per¬ 
quisite. In Fraser Fiver they are principally captured by means of a flattened 
cedar pole, the edges of which for a couple of feet or so near the end being set 
with sharp teeth or nails, which act like so many spear-points. The Indian, 
standing in his canoe, sweeps this through the water, and so numerous are 
they that there is no fear but that a number will be impaled on the points. 
These are swept behind him into the canoe as a mower uses a scythe, until 
the canoe is full. Herrings and shoals of all other small fishes are caught 
likewise in this ingenious mode. Besides those kept for drying or from which 
oil is made, vast quantities are used in the fresh state for food, and the sudden 
arrival of the fish, occurring generally just at a time when the Indians’ winter 
stores are nearly finished and they are rather pressed for food, the plethora 
often proves fatal by producing surfeit. 
4. The oil is obtained by putting the fish into water in boxes—generally hol¬ 
lowed out of a solid block of cedar (Thuja gigantea , Nutt., T. Menziesii , Dough), 
or so closely made as to be water-tight—and then throwing in red-hot stones. 
This ingenious method of boiling is practised by all the Indians on the north¬ 
west coast of America. The oil is then skimmed off the surface and set aside in 
vessels to cool. The oil is never made by suspending iron vessels (after the 
more familiar manner of the whites) over the fire, for in that case the fishes 
would be destroyed, and it would be difficult to separate the broken fragments 
from the oil. The quality, however, greatly depends upon the care employed, 
and the amount of heat used to extract the oil from the fatty tissues of the fish. 
An inferior description is also made by squeezing the fishes out of which the 
finer oil has already been extracted in the method described, in a cloth against 
a board.* Properly prepared, the oil is, at a temperature of 60° Fahr., ainber- 
* I have given the general rationale of the process of manufacture. There are, however, 
various superstitions connected with the oulachan (as with everything ebe which the Indian 
has to do with), which entail various minute ceremonies. Mr. William Duncan, the excellent 
