292 LITTLE FOLKS 
tell you about it. A man or boy mounts the swiftest horse, and, 
taking a bell in his hand, starts off at a full gallop, ringing the bell 
as hard as he can. As soon as the rest hear it, every horse instantly 
starts on a run, as if he were mad. On, on they fly, in a wild, mad 
scramble, over bushes and through mud, each frantically striving to 
be first. It is a fearful troop to meet in a narrow road, you may be 
sure ; for I don't know as anything short of a bullet would stop 
them in their mad career. 
When they reach the water, and the bell is quiet, they all drink, 
and then they are led back in the same frantic way. 
But to return to our Salmon-fishing, As soon as they arrive, 
the squaws set up the lodges, and get everything into house-keeping 
order, while the Indians prepare for the fishing. Some build dry- 
ing-sheds on the bank of the stream; others cut down huge trees, 
trim the branches off, and drag them to the rocks, where they hang 
over the falls, and are fastened there by immense stones. 
They look like giant fishing-poles, which indeed they are, for 
from them hang the baskets which are pitfalls for the poor fish. 
You may think they are pretty large fish-poles, and so they are ; 
but I'm afraid you'll open your eyes still wider when I tell you that 
the baskets which the Indians make are thirty feet in circumference, 
and twelve feet deep — as large as quite a respectable bedroom; and 
I assure you I am telling the simple truth. 
These huge baskets are hung by ropes of bark, with much 
labor, to the poles, and fixed near the rocks, yet where the water of 
the fall will rush right into them when the river rises. 
When all these arrangements are completed, a watch is set to 
announce the arrival of the fish. With the first fish ccmmences 
busy work. The Salmon are so thick that you could scarcely put 
your hand into the water and not touch one; and when they reach 
the fall they all try to jump over. But it is a long jump, and many 
fall back into the baskets, where they meet with a warm reception; 
for no sooner do they touch bottom, than the Indians, of whom 
there are several in the basket, seize them, kill them instantly with 
a club, and throw them out on the rocks. Between two and three 
hundred fishes are usually thrown from each basket in a day. Seme 
of them are large enough to weigh seventy-five pounds. The 
Indians, who are in the baskets, stand under the fall of water, you 
must remember, and of course they have often to be relieved during 
the day. 
