Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1904-12-16

tho rivers are lean aud they lack the
flavor OF those caught fresh from the
sea. This is the advantage we have in
the Sock-eye. We catch it when it is
fat and fresh. 1t is, l believe, the
most delicious OF fish meat"
Show do you catch the fish, Mr..
McMilliu?" asked.
ave are now using great fish traps.
They are not like those Of the Colum-
bia river, which are made in the
shape of wheels turned by the stream,
so that they catch the fish as they 60
up and, carrying them aloft. empty
them into the boat with which the
wheels are connected.
"Our traps are q series OF great
heartshaped Enclosures walled with
nets, so that the fish 60 into them and
! roam about from one to the other try
ing to get out until they finally come
into a great vat-like net which will
hold 10000 or 10000 at one time. 1
have seen such a trap with more than
100, 900 big salmon in it"
"But how do you get the fish into
the trap" / asked.
"We take advantage of the habits
and customs of the salmon. They
have their own way of doing things
and they will do the same things over
again the same way year after year.
In coming to the fresh water to
spawn they 90 in body and will not
allow anything to turn them from
their course if they possibly can.
We know just where the course is,
and, where it lies along the shore OF
the island, we build our breakwaters
with these heart-shaped traps at the
end. The fish strike the breskwaters
and swim out into the traps, going on
and on until they land in the great
net."
at must take strong net to hold
them?" said I.
at does. We drive down piles
about a hundred feet long and fasten
the nets to them. When the final net
is full, the fish are emptied by pulling
up one end of the net and rolling them
out into the scows. Indeed, We haul
fish much as you haul dirt in scows
from the dredging boats.
Steam tugs drag the scows to the
canneries. In emptying the nets we
sometimes ladle out the fish with
great dip-nets, which are worked by a
steam engine just as a pile.driver is
worked"
DEATH JOURNEY OF THE SALMON.
Do all salmon come from the salt.
water?
"Yes," replied Mr.. Mcmillan. "And
so far as we know in about the same
way and at about the same age. Sill.
yer plates bearing the date have been
fastened to baby salmon going down
the river and those salmon have been
caught on their return. In oil cases
the time is four years, so that we
know four years to be the age of the
salmon"
"The salmon makes this last jour-
ney 10 die. The swans song is moth
ing to his death pilgrimage. He
fights his way through salt water and
fresh, stemming the tide and seeming
ly going fastest where the waters are
strongest.
In the rivers he jumps the rapids
and makes his way over stones and
rubbish. He often bruises himself,
tearing his skin, until at last he
reaches the spot where the young SAL
mon are to be born. There he stays
to die"
"But, Mr.. McMillin, why do you
speak OF the salmon as he? 1t is tho
female salmon which lays the eggs, is
it mott"
Yes, but ! use the pronoun az
indicating both sexes. The male and
female salmon 90 together and every
female has her male follower, who will
fight for his place near her as the
bull seal fights for the cows on the
seal islands. The two keep together
until the female salmon drops her
spawn. Soon after that they die. In
some places the dead fish are piled in
upon another in such masses that
their stencil pollutes the country
around"
"But where 80 many fish are
caught, I should think it would result
in the extinction OF the race. Will
not the salmon soon die out, as the
buffalo has done?"
mo. A single fish lays tens of
thousands OF eggs. and if only a. small
part of the eggs should hatch there
would be plenty to keep up the sup.
ply.
eve are now protecting the salmon,
and the Government has established
hatcheries at the headwaters where
millions of minnows are produced
every year. The State of Washington
also maintains nineteen large hatch
cries, which during the past season
havo turned into the streams about
Sc, 900 900 spawn. Those millions are
now fish starting out on their way to
the sea, and they will come back at