The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-06-02
WHEN THE SALMON RUN.
EFrom the Portland Oregonian.1

EFrom the Portland Oregonian.1
The sails of the fishing fleet again dot
the broad mouth of the Columbia. and
from now until August II one of the
prettiest spectacles on the lower reaches
of the great river will be the trim little
boats, each with its fiat spritsail its
two or three men, and its canvas-cov-
cred nets slaShing the water, on its
way to or from the fishing grounds.
The boats used by the Columbia river
fishermen are, like the fishing craft of
every country, the result of an evolu-
ton which has gradually fitted them
exactly for the service in which they
are engaged. They are all of the same
general plan, sharp at both ends. hollow
bowed, built to ride waves like sea
gulls, and to increase in buoyancy as
their cargo weighs them down into the
water. They carry a SpritSail which
can be shortened merely by unshipping
the spirit, and taken in entirely at a
moments notice This is necessary, for
the winds that blow at the mouth of
the Columbia are subject to violent in
creases' on short notice, and the fisher
man must be able to get his craft under
bare poles in the nick of time or cap
size and struggle in a water-logged
boat until help arrives.
As long as the weather is pleasant the
life of the salmon seeker is tolerably
enjoyable, as such lives go. He is in
the open air, he never knows what ill
health means, and the constant excite
ment of his quest and friendly rivalry
of daily races with other fishermen keep
up his interest in things. But when
driZzling rains pour down, week in and
week out, when a driving gale sets in
from the ocean and the swell grows
heavier and heavier, till the little boat
is tossed about like an egg-Shell, it is
by no means an easy or safe pursuit.
Last year the Columbia river salmon
pack was 100000 cases. valued at ST.,
500, 755. and nearly 10000 men are en-
ployed in the various branches Of the
work.
Passengers on the Astoria boats. on
awakening in the morning, find their
attention drawn to teams of horses,
wading apparently in midriver. and at
tached to some invisible burden. To
the uninitiated this spectacle causes no
small amount Of wonder, and the rail
of a steamer is usually lined with the
Orizing passengers until an obliging Off
Ger explains that these are saining
grounds-shallow tracts of water where
large seineS are taken out into the river
in boats and their tow lines hitched to
horses, which then pull them ashore,
with not infrequently a. big haul of
bright silvery 'chinooks. The sein-
ing grounds worked or leased by the T
owners are among the most profitable
and easy means of fishing, none of the
dangers of the men who fish out toward
the sea being risked by the seiner.
Nesting under the rocky point that
mariners look for when they want to
locate the mouth OIL the 0OlOInDld Is
Bakers bay, and Bakers bay bristleS
with piles. There are thousands of
them, stretching in every direction as
far as, and further than, they can be
counted, and obstructing, so navigators
allege, the channel, by forming 1nnum-
cradle bars on the bottom of the river.
These piles are the skeletons or frames
of fish traps, with which Bakers bay
fairly teens.
The traps are ingenious affairs, being
sir r1lU
the piles, and intended to defect the
salmon from his cruise to the spawning
grounds and steer him into a maze
made of more nets from which he can
no more extricate himself than he can
walk on a pair of crutches. He must
keep on swimming right along, II he eX-
poets to get anywhere, and his deSt1na-
ton is an open space, in the midst Of
a group of piles. driven in a circle, at
| the bottom of which is strong net, at
| tached to gear by which it may be pull
/ ed clear from the water, salmon and
| all. Every morning the owners OF the
| traps in their boats, haul up the nets,
and in q good season, find them alive
with the fioundering salmon, who have
| been butting their heads into the piles
| and nets all night, in a vain struggle to
| escape. Sometimes q, big, powerful fell
| low actually rends a net and escapes,
| but he usually finds himself in another
| trap in a few minutes.
The money invested in traps in
! Bakers bay IS enormous, as edcu TRAP
| is an expensive affair. requiring many
| feet of net, and the driving Of a large
number of piles. Most OF the traps IN
! the river are in Bakers bay, whose wa
! tiers are within the limits of the state OF
! Washington, and the amount that is
/ paid into the state every year for licenses
/ is very large. Here and there along the
/ Oregon shore of the Columbia, almost
| as far up as the Cascade Locks, are
I to be found a few traps, but their num-
/ Der is nothing like as great as that OF
/ the traps on the Washington side.
The most deadly of all the foes of
/ the salmon, however await him further
! along on his journey up the river. mat
/ is the fish wheel. an ingenious contrlV-
ance which was invented on the Column
1 bia river and which gives the salmon
who enters its long lead absolutely no
4 chance for his life. Up the Columbia,
! from Rooster Rock to the Cascade
Locks, and again in the vicinity OF
The Dalles, these wheels-scoreso of them
may be seen working any day during
| the fishing season. Sometimes, When the
run is large, they are pitching salmon
out of the river faster almost than the
attendants can take care of them
The wheels consist of large, shallow
/ nets, arranged about central aXles, like
the fans of a windmill, and dipping in
to the river like an undershot wheel
the current turning them slowly around
/ Long 'leadWays" are built out into the
/ river to defect the fish into the chan-
mel under the wheels, and as they swim
UP stream, they suddenly find them
selves lifted into the air, shot down in
/ to trough, and thence to the slippery
deck of a scoW or platform, where a
pile of their fellows are breathing theil
| last.
The spring Chinook salmon, which
comes only into the Columbia river Is
/ admitted to be the finest fish of his kind
that swinas in Pacific waters Although
his average weight is between 10 and q
| pounds, the Chinook sometimes run as
high as 60 pounds, and the man WhC
gets one of these fellows in his net US
1IaIly knows that he has caught some
thing before he gets him out. He l!
worth the trouble it takes to get hil
however for at cents pound he /:
worth $3.50 at the canneries, and vii
| I,ri,n.r q err-aat daal more than that il