ZOOLOGY. 
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projecting rock along the banks of the stream. The salmon keeping close to the shore, in order 
to avoid the force of the current, take advantage of “shore eddies ” in their ascent. The 
Indian selects a proper location, generally a projecting rock, upon -which he builds a platform, 
and with a “scoop net,” about four feet in diameter, attached to a long pole, rapidly sweeps 
the water below. The net passing down with the current, and immersed four or five feet below 
the surface, is alternately dipped and drawn up, again to be plunged in the boiling waters 
above. During the height of the season it is not uncommon for a single man to thus take 
twenty or thirty fine fish in an hour. The time chosen is usually during the long twilight of 
the evening or early morning. Whether this is because the fish do not “run” during the 
bright hours of the day, or because they, seeing better , avoid the net, I am in doubt. 
For subsequent consumption the salmon are split open, and the entrails and backbone taken 
out; they are then hung up in the lodges to dry in the smoke. When perfectly dry they are 
packed in bundles, and kept in baskets or mats, and in some places, as along the river from 
Walla-Walla to Fort Colville, large stores are placed on platforms raised on poles some 12 or 
15 feet from the ground. This is to protect them from the ravages of wolves. To guard 
against rain, and the plundering propensities of crows, magpies, and ravens, they are covered 
by mats or strips of bark, and occasionally with rough-hewn boards; no salt is used by the 
savages in preparing the fish, yet, nevertheless, the food thus preserved keeps in good order 
for several years. Dr. Cooper furnishes me with the following notes concerning a salmon, 
which he has had many opportunities of observing while residing near the Columbia river: 
“ The name of this salmon is evidently a corruption of that by which the Indians distinguish 
a small river north of the Chehalis, and which is celebrated among them for the excellence of its 
salmon. As pronounced by them, it is Quin-nai-ult. I have eaten fish from there smoked and 
also salted, but never saw one fresh. It is smaller than the preceding, those I saw not being more 
than two feet long. If the same as Richardson’s fish, which is probable, it is singular that the 
Indians should find it so much superior in that river, and that they should contend that it is 
found there only. I have heard, however, that the same species was caught sometimes in a 
river running into Shoalwater bay, and it is probable that the name of the above river is 
derived from that of the Salmon, and not, as is generally supposed, the contrary. It would 
appear as if the same frequent the Columbia also.”—C.* 
Dr. Gairdner says of the quinnat :f “ This is the species which ascends the Columbia earliest 
in the season, commencing its run in the month of May, in enormous shoals, clearing the greater 
Dalles, cascades, and rapids innumerable, and making its way to the sources of the river where, 
at the close of the season, it is found dead on the beach in great numbers. The muscular power 
of this fish is truly astonishing even in a class of the animal kingdom remarkable for vigorous 
movements. ***** Individuals of this species have often been seen with their noses 
fairly worn down to the bone, and in the last stages of emaciation,- yet still striving, to the last 
gasp, to ascend the stream. The selection of particular streams for spawning is a remarkable 
feature in the history of this fish. It ascends the Willamette, Snake, and Kootenay rivers, &c., 
and passes by the Kawalitch, Okanagan, Dease’s river, and others, seeming to prefer a rapid 
stream, uninterrupted by falls, to one of a quieter character, though other circumstances must 
regulate its choice, as some of the rivers which it refuses to enter have an extremely rapid current. 
* I think it probable that the fish of the Quin-nai-ult river is distinct from the present species. The quinnat is an exceedingly 
abundant fish in the Columbia, and is much larger than those mentioned by Dr. Cooper.—S. 
f See Rich. F. B. A. Fishes, p. 219. 
