Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-05-20

moro felt that the "earth was wheeling sun
ward, and the cold snow-waters ran down
from the mountains into the Columbia river,
and made a freshet on the river and the high
water went far out into the sea, and out in
the sea our salmon felt it ON his gills and he
remembered how the cold water used 10 feel
in the Cowlitz when ho was a little fsh, and
in q laundering fishy fashion he thought
about it. and wondered whether the little ed
| dy looked as il used to. and whether caddice-
| worms and young musquitos were really as
sweet and tender as he used to think they
were and thought some other things, but as
a salmon's mind is located in the optic lobes
of his brain, and ours in a different place, we
can not be certain, after ALL what his thoughts
really were. What he did we know He did
what every grown salmon in the ocean does
when he feels the glacier-water once more
upon his gills He became a changed being,
He spurned the Establishments of soft-shelled
| crabs. The pleasures of the table and of the
chase, heretofore his only delights, lost their
charm for him. He turned his course straight
toward the direction whence the cold fresh
water came and for the rest of his life he never
tasted a mouthful of food He moved on
toward the river mouth at first playfully, as
though he we're not really certain whether he
meant anything after all. Afterward, when
| he struck the full current of the Columbia,
he plunged straight forward with an unAinch-
ing determination that had in it something of
| the heroic. When he had passed the rough
waters at the bar, he found that he was not
alone his old neighbors of the Oowlitz and
many more, great army OF salmon, were
with him. In front were thousands press
ing on and behind them, were thousands
more, all moved by common impulse which
urged them up the Columbia.
They were swimming bravely along where
the current was deepest, when suddenly the
foremost felt something tickling like a cob
| web about their noses and under their chins.
| They changed their course a little TO brush it
of, aud it touched their fins as well. Then
they tried to slip down with the current, and
thus TO leave it behind. But no-the thing,
whatever it was, although its touch was soft,
refused to let go, and held them like a fetter
and, the more they struggled, the tighter be-
came its grasp. And the whole foremost
rank of the salmon felt it together, for it was
great gllnet, a quarter Of a mile long, and
stretched squarely across the mouth of the
river By-and-by men came in boats and
hauled up the gill-net and threw the helpless
salmon into pile on the bottom of the boat,
and the others saw them no more. We that
live outside the water know better what be-
falls them, and we can tell the story which
the salmon could not.
All along the banks of the Columbia river,
from its mouth TO nearly thirty miles away,
there is n succession of large buildings, look
ing like great barns or ware houses, built on
piles in the river, and high enough TO be out
of the reach of floods. There are thirty of
these buildings, and they are called cRnneries.
Each cannery has about forty boats, and with
each boat are two men and long gill-net, and
| these nets fill the whole river as with n nest
| of cobwebs from April to July; and to each
cannery nearly a thousand great salmon are
h,ott ttrkN in dau Ihnua calr.
thrown in pile on the floor and Wing Hop,
the big Chinaman, takes them one after an
other on the table, and with a great knife
| dexterously cuts of the head, the tail and
| the fms then with a sudden thrust removes
the intestines and the eggs. The body goes
into q tank of water, and the head goes down
the river to be made into salmon-oil. Next,
the body is brought on another table, and
| Quong Sang, with machine like a feed-cut-
ter, cuts it into pieces Just as long as a one
| pound can. Then All Sam, with butcher
knife, cuts these pieces into strips Just as
wide as the can. Then Wan Lee, the China
boy, brings down from the loft, where the
| tinners. are making them, hundred cans, and
into each can puts a spoonful of salt. 1t takes
| Just six salmon to fill hundred cans. Then
twenty Cinnamon put the pieces of meat into
the cans fitting in little strips to make them
exactly full Then ten more solder up the
cans, and ten more put the cans in boiling
water till the meat is thoroughly cooked, and
Ave more punch a little hole in the head of
each can to let out the air. Then they solder
them up again, and little girls paste on them
bright-colored labels showing merry little
| Cupids riding the happy salmon up to the
cannery-door, with Mount Rainier and Cape
Disappointment in the background and
legend underneath says that this is Booths
or ''Badollets Best" or "Hume's" or
"Clark's" or "Kinney's Superine Saltwater
Salmon" Then the cans are placed in cases,
forty-eight in a case, and five hundred thous-
and cases are put up every year. Great ships
| come to Astoria and are loaded with them,
and they carry them away to London, and
San Francisco, and Liverpool, and New York,
and Sydney and Valparaiso, and Skowhegan,
Maine and the man at the corner grocery
sells them at twenty cents can.
All this time our salmon is going up the
river, escaping one net as by a miracle, and,
soon having need of more miracles to escape
the rest passing by Astoria on a fortunate
day, which was Sunday, the day on which no
man may fish if he expects to sell what he
catches, till finally he came to where nets
were few, and, at last to where they ceased
altogether. But here he found that scarcely
any of his many companions we're with him,
| for the nets cease when there are no more
| salmon to be caught in them. So he went ON
| day and night where the water was deepest,
| stopping not to feed or loiter on the way, till
at last he came to wild gorge, where the
| great river became an angry torrent rushing
| wildly over q huge staircase or rocks. But
our hero did not falter and, summoning all
| his forces, he plunged into the Cascades. The
current caught him and dashed him against
the rocks. A whole row of silvery scales
came off and glistened in the water like sparks
of fire, and place on his side became black
and red, which for o salmon, is the same as
being black and blue for other people. His
comrades tried TO go up with him and one
lost his eye, one his tail, and one had his
| lower jaw pushed back into his head like the
| joints of a telescope. Again he tried TO sur
mount the Cascades, and at last he succeeded,
and an Indian on the rocks above was waiting
to receive him. But the Indian with his
| spear was less skillful than he was wont to
be, and our hero escaped, losing only pant of
| one of his fins, and with him came one other,
and henceforth these two pursued their jour
| ney together.
! Now gradual change took place in the
| looks of our salmon. In the sea he was
plump and round and silvery, with delicate
teeth, and as handsome and symmetrical a
mouth as any one need wish TO kiss. Now
his silvery color disappeared, his skin grew
| Shiny, and the scales sank into it; his back
grew black and his sides turned red-notsa
healthy red, but a sort of hectic flush. He
grew poor, and his back, formerly as straight
as need be, now developed an unpleasant
hump at the shoulders His eyes-like those
of all enthusiasts who forsake eating and
sleeping for some loftier Rim-beeame dark
and sunken. His symmetrical jawsgrewlonger
and longer, and, meeting each other, as the
nose of an old man meets his chin, each had
TO turn aside TO let the other pass. And his
beautiful teeth grew longer and longer, and
projected from his mouth, giving him saw
age and wolfsh appearance, quite unlike his
real disposition. For all the desires and am
| bitions of his nature had become eentered in
to one. We do not know what this one was,
but we know that 1t was a strong one, for it
led him on and on, past the nets and horrors
| of Astorin mast the DANGEROUS Cascades. past