Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-01-24
A FINE DAYS SPORT.
Rudyard Kipling Goes Salmon Fish
ing in the Clackamas.
IN A SALMON CANNERY.
A Strange Ride Over All Kinds of Roads-A
Foreigners Impressions Of the Country and
Peopie-A Half Hours Fight with Plucky
fish-Interesting Description.
Written for the Evening Star.
HAVE LIVED! THE AMERICAN CT

I HAVE LIVED! THE AMERICAN CONTI-
Il neut may now sink under the sea. for have
taken the best that it yields, and the best was
neither dollars, love nor real estate. Here,
now, gentlemen of the runjaub Fishing Club
who whip the reaches of the Tayi and you who
painfully import trout over to Otacamund,
and will tell you how old man California and
l went fishing and you shall envy. We re-
turned from The Dalles to Portland by the way
we had come. the steamer stopping en- route to
pick upa nights catch of one of the salmon
wheels on the river and to deliver it at a can
merry down stream. When the proprietor Of
the wheel announced that his take was q $50
pounds weight of fish land not heavy catch
neither thought he lied. But he sent the
boxes aboard and counted the salmon by the
hundred-huge fifty Founders hardly dead,
scores Of twenty and thirty Founders and host
of smaller fish. They were all Chenook salmon
as distinguished from the 'steel head and the
'siiver side" That is to say, they were royal
salmon, and California and dropped tear
over them as monarchs who deserved a better
fate, but the lust of slaughter entered into our
souls and we talked fish and forgot the noun
tain scenery that had 30 moved US q day be-
fore.
IN THE SALMON CANNERY.
The steamer halted ut rude wooden ward
house, built on piles in lonely reach of the
river, and sent in the fish, I followed them up
scale-strewn, fishy incline that led to the cam
merry. The crazy building was uliyering with
the machinery on its floors and n glittering
bank of tin scraps twenty feet nigh showed
where the waste was thrown after the cans bad
been punched. Only Cinnamon we're employed
on the work end they looked like blood be-
smeared. yellow devils as they crossed the riffs
of sunlight that lay upon the floor. When our
consignment arrived the rough wooden boxes
broke OF themselves they were dumped
down under Jet of water and the salmon
burst out in stream of quicksilver. A China
man jerked up twenty FOUNDER, behcaded
and detailed il with two swift strokes of a
knife, flicked out its internal arrangements
with a third and east it into blood-dyed tank.
The headless fish leaped from under his hands
as though they were facing rapid. Other
Cinnamon pulled them from the vat and thrust
them under thing like chat cutter. which,
descending, hewed them into unseemly red
gobbets, fit for the can. siore Cinnamon, with
yellow, crooked fingers,
TANNED THE STUFF INTO THE CANS.
which slid down some marvellous machine
forthwith, soldering their own tops as they
passed. Each can was hastily tested for flaws
and then sunk with hundred companions into
vat of boiling water. there TO be half cooked
for few minutes. The cans bulgod slightly
after the operation and were therefore Sudden
along by the trollyful to men with needles and
soldering irons, who vented them and soidered
the aperture. Except for the label the finest
Columbia salmon" was ready for the market. /
was impressed not much with the speed of
the manufacture as the character of the fac
tory. Inside, on floor 80 by 40, the most civ
ilized and lnurderous of machinery. Outside,
three footsteps. the thick growing pines and
the immense solitude of the hills. Our steamer
only stayed twenty minutes at that place, but
counted 2i0 finished cans made from the catch
OF the previous night ere left the slippery,
blood stained. scale-spangled oily floors and the
offal-smeared Cinnamon.
OFF FOR SALMON RIVER.
We reached Portland, California and / cry
ing for salmon, and real estate man, to whom
we had been intrusted by an insurance man,
met US in the street, saying that fifteen miles
away, across country, we should come upon a
place called Claekamas, where we might per-
chance ind what we desired. And California.
his coat tails flying in the wind, ran to livery
stable and chartered wagon and team forth
with. / could push the wagon about with one
hand. SO light was its structure. The team was
purely American-that is to say, almost human
in its intelligence and docility. Some one said
that the roads were not good on the way to
Clackamas and warned us against smashing the
springs. Portland who had watched the
preparations, finally reckoned he'd come
along, too, and under heavenly skies we three
companions of day set forth, California care
fully flashing our rods into the carriage and the
bystanders overwhelming us with directions as
to the sawmills We were 10 pass, the ferries we
were TO cross and the sign posts we were to seek
signs from. Half mile from this CITY of 80 900
souls we struck (and this must be taken liter
ally plank road that would have been a dis
grace to an Irish village.
ALL KINDS OF ROADS.
Then six miles of macadamized road showed
us that the team could move. railway ran
between us and the banks of the Willamette
and another above us through the mountains.
AL the land was dotted with small townships
and the roads were full of farmers in their
town wagons, punches Of tOw-haired. boggle-
eyed urchins sitting in the hay behind. The
men generally looked like loafers. but their
women were ali well dressed. Brown brading
on a tailor-made jacket does nots however, con
sort with hay wagons. Then we struck into
the woods along what California called
Gamma reale--a good road-and Port
land ''fair track" 1t wound in
and out among fre-blackened stumps,
under pine trees, along the corners OF log
fences. through hollows, which must be hope
less marsh in winter, and up absurd gradients.
Butnowhere throughout its length did l see
any evidence of road making. There was a
track-you couldn't well get off it. and it was
all you could do to stay on it. The dust lay q
foot thick in the blind ruts, and under the dust
we found bits of planking and bundles of
brushwood that sent the wagon bounding into
the air. The journey in itself was n delight.
Sometimes we crashed.through bracken; anon.
where the blackberries grew rankest. we found
a lonely little cemetery. the wooden rails ali
awry and the pitiful stumpy headstones nod
ding drunkenly at the soft green mulleins.
Then, with oaths and the sound of rent under
wood. II yoke of mighty bulls would swing
down ''skid" road hauling 40-foot log along
u rudely made slide.
READY FOR ANYTHING.
A valley full of wheat and cherry trees sue
ceeded. and hating at house we bought ten
pound weight of luscious black cherries for
something less than q rupee ard got drink of
icy cold water for nothing, while the INTENDED
team browsed sagaciously by the roadside.
Once We found a wayside camp of horse deal
ers lounging by pool, ready for a sale or q
swap, and once two sun-tanned youngsters shot
down hill on Indian ponies. their fun crccls
banging from the high pummeled saddle.
They had been fishing and were our brethren
therefore. We shouted aloud in chorus to
scare wildcat; We squabbled over the reasons
that had led n snake to cross a road; we hea Jed
bits OF bark ut yenturesome chipmunk who
was really the little gray squirrel Of India and
had come to call on me: We lost our way and
got the wagon SO beautifully fixed on a khud-
bound road that we had to tie the two hind
wheels to get ii down. Above all California
| told tales OF Nevada and Arizona, of lonely
| nights spent ont prospecting, the slaughter Of
deer and the chase OF men. of woman, lovely
woman, who is a firebrand in western city
and leads to the popping of pistols, and of the
afh-tn..w =