Bluefield evening leader. [volume] (Bluefield, W. Va.) 1906-1911, 1907-09-06
CANNED SALMON.
Common Enough at the Grocery
MN

""hAOelS salmon are there caught.
One dismisses with an incredulous
laugh travellers tales OF the salmon
jostling one another out OF the
crowd Frazer river i'm their haste 10
get upstream. an Englishman all the
time thinking Of the Fraser as like
a Scotch salmon river.
Though il would take good
many fish TO M a Scotch river So
iull, yet even then il could not ac-
commodate enough 10 keep one Of
the smaller Canadian canneries NJ
work for a season
AT one of these smaller canneries
10000 to 1900 FISH can be dealt
with In day I'm busy season. and
there are canneries. some Of enorm-
Gus capacity, all along The coast in
the States as we'll as ia Canada.
Yet, in spite of the multitude of
fish taken. there does not seem to be
any diminution in the numbers left
The Dominion government enforces
close times strictly. says the Queen
and much Is also Gone in fish hatch
cries to protect the young FISH TIL
they grow sizeable; salmon may be
only Melted for few weeks in July
and August
Even then there Is a close time
from 6 o'clock every Saturday morn
ing till 6 o'clock on Sunday night.
II is pretty sight on n Sunday.
when the sun begins to dip, to see
the feet of fishing boats all out on
the broad, smooth Fraser river wait
ing to cast their nets the moment the
6 o'clock gun is fred at New West
minister. The fishermen are mostly
Japanese.
This is the only one fishing ground
out OF many, and the Stevenson can
neries on Puget Sound. a few miles
train ride out of Vancouver CITY.
though the largest in Canada. are
by no means the only aourishing
business Of the kind. Steveston IS
quite large town. Chinatown in
great part, for Cinnamon and ma
ItiYe Indians do most of the canning
work. The Indian settlements are
quite deserted in the summer time.
except for a few old women and
children, for every man. woman or
girl who can hold knife is sure
OF employment at the salmon can
neries.
In Vancouver in the canning sea-
son 1t is almost impossible to get
servants, for cooks are generally
Chinese. and besides they earn high
wages and are sure of being well
coined back again when the salmon
has gone down to the sea and the
works are shut till next year.
When the fishing boats have taken
in their haul they set sail for the
Steveston wharves and the salmon is
hung out in great heaps-hundreds
thousands of them on the wide
floor, men wading in them knee deem
heaping them up conveniently for
the machines and the men and
women to begin work.
Several kinds of salmon there are
and two are easily pointed out The
spring salmon is best in flavor and
Is the only sort served on British
Columbia tables, but it is pale col
ored,' and the ignorant public will
not buy it, so it is not used for can
hing' The sockeye is what is tin
ned; it is more abundant. with deem
red flesh, and all the fish are of a
size.
Some of the spring salmon are
larger than others and most of them
are larger than the sockeye but
then spring salmon vary in age and
sockeyes are all just four years old
After four years of ocean life they
go up the river to spawn and. hav-
Ilng spawned, they die-die all along
the river banks; or. if they are pre-
vented from getting up stream, die
in heaps beneath the barrier.
Every four years there is a glut
when fish have to be thrown into
the sea again because the canneri g
cannot dispose of all that the fisher
men BRING, when wasted salmon
lie all about the Steveston wharves.
and when salmon are sold in Van
couVer for cent apiece. which is
less even than il sounds. because
cent is not recognized coin i'm
british Columbia; nothing costs less
IMAM five cents; there are no coppers
IN circulation, and. as for the sal
mon the housekeeper would have IN
take five for her nickel. inasmucb nc
there is no such thing as change
fortunately the glut did not come
this year. for there was a shortage
OF labor as It was. and spring sal.
mon were selling at thirty-fye and
forty cents apiece.
long row Of Indian women work
ing at a board seize the fish from
the heap and gut them. the next
worker cutting of the heads. tails
and fins. Then they are washed
and sliced by machinery Cby means
/ OF circular knives. similar TO tbose
used for cutting planks Of wood,
so that the slices arc all Of one