A NATURAL SALMON-TRAP.
The salmon, the cousin of the trout, is famous for its method of going up-stream; it darts at falls ten or twelve feet high, leaps into the air, and rushes up the falling water in a marvellous manner. So determined are the salmon to attain the high and safe waters, that in some localities nets are placed beneath the falls, into which the fish tumble in their repeated attempts to clear the hill of water. Other than human hunters, moreover, profit by these scrambles up-hill. Travellers report that on the banks of the Upper St John River, in Canada, there was once a rock in which a large circular well, or pot-hole, had been worn by the action of the water. At the salmon-season, this rock proved a favourite resort for bears; and for a good reason. Having an especial taste for salmon, the bears would watch at the pot-hole, and as the salmon, dashing up the fall, were thrown by its force into the rocky basin, the bears would quickly scrape them out of the pot-hole, and the poor salmon would be eaten before they had time to wonder at this unlooked-for reception. The Dominion government finally authorised a party of hunters to destroy the pot-hole, and thus break up the bears’ fishing-ground.