Note 390 — Chapter III · COLUMBIANS. (continued 2)

Natives begin to assemble at Kettle Falls about three weeks before the salmon begin to run; feuds are laid by; horse-racing, gambling, love-making, etc., occupy the assembly; and the medicine-men are busy working charms for a successful season. The fish are cut open, dried on poles over a small fire, and packed in bales. On the Fraser each family or village fishes for itself; near the mouth large gaff-hooks are used, higher up a net managed between two canoes. All the principal Indian fishing-stations on the Fraser are below Fort Hope. For sturgeon a spear seventy to eighty feet long is used. Cut of sturgeon-fishing. Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 71-6, 181, 184-6. The Pend d'Oreilles 'annually construct a fence which reaches across the stream, and guides the fish into a weir or rack,' on Clarke River, just above the lake. The Walla Walla 'fisheries at the Dalles and the falls, ten miles above, are the finest on the river.' The Yakima weirs constructed 'upon horizontal spars, and supported by tripods of strong poles erected at short distances apart; two of the logs fronting up stream, and one supporting them below;' some fifty or sixty yards long. The salmon of the Okanagan were 'of a small species, which had assumed a uniform red color.' 'The fishery at the Kettle Falls is one of the most important on the river, and the arrangements of the Indians in the shape of drying-scaffolds and store-houses are on a corresponding scale.' Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, pp. 214, 223, 231, 233; Gibbs, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. i., pp. 407-8. The salmon chief at Kettle Falls distributes the fish among the people, every one, even the smallest child, getting an equal share. Kane's Wand., pp. 311-14. On Des Chutes River 'they spear the fish with barbed iron points, fitted loosely by sockets to the ends of poles about eight feet long,' to which they are fastened by a thong about twelve feet long. Abbott, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. vi., p. 90. On the upper Columbia an Indian 'cut off a bit of his leathern shirt, about the size of a small bean; then pulling out two or three hairs from his horse's tail for a line, tied the bit of leather to one end of it, in place of a hook or fly.' Ross' Adven., pp. 132-3. At the mouth of Flatbow River 'a dike of round stones, which runs up obliquely against the main stream, on the west side, for more than one hundred yards in length, resembling the foundation of a wall.' Similar range on the east side, supposed to be for taking fish at low water. Ross' Fur Hunters, vol. ii., pp. 165-6. West of the Rocky Mountains they fish 'with great success by means of a kind of large basket suspended from a long cord.' Domenech's Deserts, vol. ii., pp. 240-1. On Powder River they use the hook as a gaff. Coke's Rocky Mts., p. 283. A Wasco spears three or four salmon of twenty to thirty pounds each in ten minutes. Remy and Brenchley's Jour., vol. ii., p. 506. No salmon are taken above the upper falls of the Columbia. Thornton's Ogn. and Cal., vol. i., p. 392. Walla Walla fish-weirs 'formed of two curtains of small willow switches matted together with withes of the same plant, and extending across the river in two parallel lines, six feet asunder. These are supported by several parcels of poles, ... and are either rolled up or let down at pleasure for a few feet.... A seine of fifteen or eighteen feet in length is then dragged down the river by two persons, and the bottom drawn up against the curtain of willows.' Lewis and Clarke's Trav., p. 532. Make fishing-nets of flax. Parker's Explor. Tour, p. 90. 'The Inland, as well as the Coast, tribes, live to a great extent upon salmon.' Mayne's B. C., p. 242; Nicolay's Ogn. Ter., pp. 152-3. Palouse 'live solely by fishing.' Mullan's Rept., p. 49. Salmon cannot ascend to Coeur d'Alêne Lake. Hale's Ethnog., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. vi., pp. 209-10. Okanagan food 'consists principally of salmon and a small fish which they call carp.' Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., p. 462. The Walla Wallas 'may well be termed the fishermen of the Skyuse camp.' Farnham's Trav., p. 82.