The daily journal. (Salem, Or.) 1899-1903, 1900-08-27


caught by the bucketful in the bay on
the south side Of the sandpit Another
fish runs in schools, is the pollock, a
cousin Of the tomcod. In color they are
steel blue, long and round in body,
but also voracious bitter. These are
caught some days off the docks as fast
as the boys can haul them in. The sal
mon flies and these schools Of small fry
are the harbingers Of the silverside sal
mon and the lordly chinook.
A strange and beautiful fish was ex-
hibited at the market here--the sunfish.
It is highly colored, strangely shaped
and has large luminous eyes that stand
out from the head. When boiled they
contain kind Of catseye pearl that is as
hard as any jewel of this sort and re-
fleets perfect sun. Several "pusscs' -
have been caught here, washed in after
storm. They have head and tail
like cat and are about FIVE feet long.
They live in the deep sea, are a Sea- Nam
NAL or warm-blooded animal. A blue
shark about six-foot long was captured
on the beaches here the past week. It
was not a maneater, but shovel.nosed
or mud shark.
o. r. Downs, the popcorn man, is the
high.ine fl sherman for the measlest,
meanest species ahat swims, the skate.
He has caught two off the dock at New
port that weighed go lbs. each. They
were about FIVE feet long and four feet
wide and their skin is as rough as the
the coarsest sandpaper. The skate has
a square hole for a mouth with four
rows of teeth all around. This month
is on the under side about one.third of
the way back from the nose. Just
above it are the eyes and on each side
Of the eyes are holes that go through in
to the mouth, so it can eat from above
or below.
To crown all this infamous combina.
ton the skate has tail like bulls
with some lashes and spikes in the end
Of il. Downs had baited with whole
perch, and as halibut are caught in this
bay each year he thought he had hooked
one of those until IL came TO the surface
about a yard square and lashing the
water into foam with its tail. They
could not land ii until skiff was run
under it. In Chicago a Doodle city
council is classified as so many honest
men and 80 many "skates." The skate
in salt water is fair type Of the skate
in politics.
The Only clambake
Of the season was undertaken at Olson |
vile the past week, but owing 10 some
Of the tides it was only
partial success. BY the contributions of
the families in that neighborhood and |
the generous cooperation of the young
people in the way of catching crabs and
fish, we had a grand variety, including
besides the above in abundance, sweet
potatoes, green corn, Irish potatoes and
a half bushel Of the large Eastern
clans. A hole five feet across and lined
with round smooth rocks off the beach
was heated by large bonfire. The
embers were cleared off, layer of sea.
weed put on, and then the eatables were
put in. But the tide came in below and |
cooled the rocks before the potatoes |
were all done. The rest had the delic- |
ious flavor that is only acquired by this
old Indian method OF cookery The
steam from the feaweed and the salt air
on the beach adds zest that surpasses
the effect produced by the cuisine Of the
finest hotels, and when topped off with
watermelon it was not failure by any
means, While only intended for pri-
vate affair, for a half fdozen Salem iami-
lies, they were surprised by an attend
ance of nearly a hundred people from
the city hotels and Nye Creek A clam
bake may become regular event at
ollsonville, and the next one will be
planted out OF reach of the tide.
+. HOFRR.