Jack the Young Canoeman: An Eastern Boy's Voyage in a Chinook Canoe

by George Bird Grinnell

"A little," said Jack, "but I cannot separate the camp from its surroundings of mountains and timber and big water."

"No," said Hugh, "that is hard to do, but of course these people are gathering their meat and drying it just as our Indians gather their meat and dry it."

In front of the tents and shelters in which the Indians lived down on the bank of the river, were scaffolds made of long poles thrust into the rocks and resting on other rocks, projecting out well over the water. On each one of these stood one or more Indians engaged in fishing with a hand net which he swept through the water, just as had been described the day before by Mr. McIntyre. To see it actually done made the operation so much easier to understand than when it had been simply described. The Indians swept their nets through the water from up stream downward, and at almost every sweep the net brought up a fish, which the man took from it with his left hand and threw to a woman standing on the bank above the stream. They could be seen to perform some operation on it, and sometimes a woman with an armful of fish went up and hung them on the drying scaffold.

Mr. Hunter was standing by them, also observing the fishing, and Jack said to him: "Mr. Hunter, I can't see clearly enough to understand just what these nets are and how they are worked. Can you explain it to me?"

"Yes," said Mr. Hunter. "It's very simple, and when you go ashore at Yale, you will be able to see the Indians catch fish in just this way, and you can see for yourself just how it is done. You know what an ordinary landing net is, don't you—a net such as we use for trout?"

"Yes, of course I do," said Jack, "it's pretty nearly what we call a scap net along the salt water, except that it is not so large or so coarse."

"Yes," said Mr. Hunter. "You know that a landing net has a handle, a hoop, to which the net is attached, and a large net hanging down below the hoop. Now if you imagine a landing net four or five times as big as any you ever saw, you will have an idea of the general appearance of one of these purse nets when spread. The hoop of the purse net is oval and made of a round stick, the branch of a tree bent so that the hoop is about four feet long by three feet broad. This hoop is attached to a long handle. Running on the stick, which forms the hoop, are a number of wooden rings, large enough to run freely. The net is attached to these small wooden rings, and if the handle is held vertically the weight of the net and rings will bring all the rings together at the bottom of the hoop, so that the net is a closed bag. Now from the end of the handle of the purse net a string runs to the hoop and is attached to the wooden rings that run on it in such a way that if you pull on the string the little wooden rings spread themselves out at equal distances all around the hoop, and the net becomes open, just as an ordinary landing net is when open. As the Indian is about to sweep the net to try to catch a fish, he pulls the string which spreads the net, and the net is then swept through the water with a slow motion. The string which holds it open passes around the little finger of one hand; and if the fisherman feels anything strike against the net, the string is loosened, the rings run together, and the net becomes a closed bag which securely holds the object within it. The salmon, swimming against the current, pass along close to the steep bank where the force of the water is least, and the eddies help them. The Indians know where the salmon pass, and sweep their nets along there to meet them; and, as you see, catch lots of fish."

"That makes it just as clear as anything," said Jack, "and I am very much obliged to you for telling me about it. I want to understand these things that I see, and sometimes it is pretty hard to do so without an explanation. Now, if you will let me, there is another question I would like to ask you. What do the women do in preparing the salmon for drying? I can see that they are using knives. Do they just cut off the head, or do they take out the backbone?"

"I am glad you asked me this question," said Mr. Hunter, "because there's a difference in the way the Indians save the fish. The coast Indians just cut off the head and remove the entrails, but these Indians up here are more dainty; I suppose, as a matter of fact, they are more primitive, and do not understand the importance of collecting all the food they can, although they ought to understand that, for they have certainly starved many times when the salmon run has been a poor one. Up here, the Indians only save the belly of the fish. By a single slash of her knife, the woman cuts away the whole belly from the throat back to a point behind the anal fins, and extending up on the sides to where the solid flesh begins. This portion is retained and hung up to dry. The whole shoulders, back and tail are thrown into the water again. There is another thing that I believe will interest you. You see these stages from which they are fishing? Well, you might think that anybody might come along and build a stage and go to fishing, or that whoever came first in the summer to one of these stages might occupy it, and use it during the season, but that isn't the fact. These stages are private property, or rather family property, and the right to occupy and use each point descends from the father to the oldest son of the family."