Weekly Trinity journal., 1874-04-18
SALMON-TISmING IN OREGON.


er. There must have been some blum
der in the Biographies out of which got
my lessons and notions of the North
west coast at school. Possibly, too, the
knowledge that navigation is interrupted
by rapids at the Cascades and Dalles con-
tributed to form an impression conspicu-
ously wrong. In fact the Columbia is
one of the largest rivers of the world
Between Astoria and the junction Of the
Willamette. its breadth, its depth, its
rapid current, and the vast body of wa
ter it carries to the sea reminded me OF
the description had read of the ANA
zon and | suspect that the Columbia
would rank with that stream were it not
for the unlucky distractions at the Cas-
cades and Dalles, which divide the stream
into two unequal parts.
Fo: ten miles above Astoria the river
is so wide that it forms really a vast bay.
Then it narrows somewhat, and the chan
mel approaches now one and now the 9TH
er of its bold, picturesque shores, which
often for miles resemble the Palisades of
the Hudson in steepness, and exceed them
in height. But even after it becomes mar
rover, the river frequently widens into
broad, open, lake-lke expanses, which
are studded with lovely islands, and
wherever the shore lowers you see, be-
yond, gyand mountain ranges, snow-clad
in spots and amazingly fine.
The banks are preciptous nearly all
the way to the junction of the William
cite, and there is, singularly, little farm
ing land on the immediate river. Below
Kalama there arc few spots whore there
is even room for small farmstead. But
along this part Of the river, are the salm
on fisheries whence come the Oregon
salmon, which, put up in Tin cans, are
now to be bought not only in all our
Eastern States, but all over the world
The fish are caught in weirs, in gill nets,
as shad are caught on the Hudson, and
this is the only part of the labor perform
cd by white men. The fishermen carry
the salmon in boats to the factory-usu-
ally large frame building erected on
piles over the water-and here they fall
into the hands of Chinese, who get for
their labor a dollar a day and their food.
the salmon are flung up on stage,
where they lie in heaps Of thousand at
time, surprising sight to an Eastern
person, for in such pile you may see fish
Weighing from thirty to sixty pounds
The work Of preparing for the cans is
conducted with exact method and great
cleanliness, water being abundant. One
Chinaman seizes fish and cuts Off hi.
head the next slashcs of the fins and
disembowels the fish it then falls into a
large vat, where the blood soaks out-a
salmon bleeds like bull-and after
soaking and repeated washings in differ
ent vats it falls at last into the hands OF
one of a gang Of Chinese whose business
it is, with heavy knives, to chop the fish
into chunks of suitable size for the cans.
These pieces are plunged into brine, and
presently stuffed into the cans, ii being the
object to fill each can as full as possible
with fish, the bone being excluded. The
top, which has a small hole pierced in it,
is then soldered on, and five hundred tins
set on q form are lowered into u large
kettle Of boiling water, where they re-
main until the heat has expelled all the
air. Then Chinaman neatly drops a
little solder over each pin hole, and after
another boiling, the object Of which is,
believe, to make sure that the cans arc
hcrmetcally sealed, the process is com
pcte, and the salmon are ready to take 9
journey longer and more remarkable
even than that which their progenitori
took when, seized with the curious rage
Of spawning, they ascended the Colum
bia, to deposit their eggs in its head wa
ters, near the center Of the continent.
| was assured by the fishermen that the
salmon do not decrease in mum bers or il
size, yet in this year, 1873, more thar
two millions of pounds were put .up ir
tin cans on the Lower Columbia alone
besides fifteen or twenty thousand barrels
Of salted salmon.-Halper's Md0azine
]