dashing over them like a monster shower-bath.
A fish seized, a sharp rap on the head knocks it
senseless, then it is flung on to the rocks, a
similar fate awaits another, and so salmon after
salmon is pitched out, until the tired Indians
are replaced by fresh. On the plateau, a
scene equally busy is going on; the squaws
and children drag the fish to the drying-sheds,
split them open, remove the backbone and
head, then hang them on the poles to dry—the
head, backbone, and a portion of the entrails
and roe being the only parts at this time eaten.
Small fires are kept smouldering under the
drying fish, to drive off the flies and aid in its
preservation. When sufficiently dried, the salmon
are packed in rush mats and tightly corded,
about fifty pounds weight in each bale. Packing
them in this manner facilitates their transport
on the backs of horses.

I have eaten salmon thus cured, after it has
been packed two years, sound and free from
taint as on the day it was caught. The salmon-
run over, which lasts about three months—
although the first three weeks produce the
greater number—the equal distribution of the
catch is made under the supervision of the
salmon chief, tents are struck, horses packed,
and each tribe wend their way back to their
wintering-grounds, where, during the long
snowy nipping winters, they live on the fruits
of the salmon harvest.

On the Fraser river there are no impediments
to the salmon's ascent as far up as any
Indians reside. Its waters rise as those of the
Columbia do, but with swifter course. In
a few places—I may instance the solid wall
of rocks (along the base of which the river
dashes with great fury) betwixt the
Surnass and Chil-uk-wey-uk rivers—stages are
used, but are hung over the water by ropes
made fast to the trees on the top of the cliff.
A similar kind of net to that of the cascades
is used in this case. But the system by which
the great take is managed is a most ingenious
net fastened between two canoes moored in the
eddy. Poles, too, armed with sharp hooks, are
used with great success to hook or gaff the
salmon into the canoe. On this river there are
no regular fisheries, nor any assemblage of tribes
from far-off places, as on the Columbia. Each
village works for itself; neither do they take
the same care in preserving the fish as their
brethren of the east take.

I have weighed salmon at the falls on the
Columbia, of seventy-five pounds. Forty pounds
is a common average. Why they obstinately
refuse the most tempting baits, after quitting the
sea where they spawn, why they go a thousand
miles up stream, and what becomes of the tiny
fry, are matters of interest to be considered at
some future period. The whole system looks
vastly like the combined links of one great
magnificent chain of design. A race of people
isolated in the far interior of a wild country,
hundreds of miles from the sea-coast, are shut
up for six months of the twelve in deep
snow, subject to an arctic temperature. To
enable them to bear it, a great quantity of carbon,
in some form, is absolutely requisite; roots,
berries, or animals, the products of the soil, are
alike inadequate to furnish the needful supply.
Mighty streams, breaking down mountain ranges,
dashing through narrow-bound channels, and
leaping craggy ledges, thread their way to the
ocean. Fish, proverbial for their fatness,
prompted by a marvellous instinct, ascend these
streams in myriads to deposit their eggs, when
the snow-water forms salmon-ladders, of
Nature's own contriving. In these fish the savage
finds the carbonic life-fuel he must have.

POOR SOLDIERING.

BESIDES my son George, who joined the navy,
I have a son who has entered the army.
Nothing would serve him but that I should
purchase a commission for him in a line
regiment. At first he wanted me to get him into
a cavalry regiment; but this I objected to, on
the score of expense. So he had to put up with
an infantry corps, very much to his disgust.

I did not find it as difficult to obtain a
commission in the army as a nomination for
the navy, but the expense of the former is at
least fifty times that of the latter. No sooner
had I obtained from the Horse Guards the
official intimation that, provided he could pass
the requisite examination before the
commissioners, my son would be appointed to an
ensigncy in the 110th Foot, than I was
inundated with letters from gentlemen offering
their services as what are vulgarly called
"Crammers." How they got hold of my address,
or how they knew that I had a son who was
about to enter the army, is to this day a marvel
to me. But they did so somehow, and they
regularly hunted me down at last. From the
time I received the conditional nomination for
my son, to the day he would have to appear
before the examiners at Chelsea, a period of
about three months would elapse; and in this
interval my boy would have to prepare himself for
an examination on special subjects, to which he
had hitherto hardly turned his attention. But
there was another condition with respect to his
nomination. It was, that if he succeeded in
passing the commissioners, I should be prepared
to pay the sum of four hundred and fifty pounds
for his ensigncy.

By the advice of a military friend, I selected
from among the many candidates for my
patronage, a gentleman who was briefly
described to me as "an awfully good crammer,"
who had "pulled through" more dunderhead
candidates for commissions than any other man
in the same line of business. Not that my
son was either a fool, or wanting in what I
considered to be a good grounding for a military
education. He could speak both German and
French very fairly, and could even write the latter
language well. Of general history, mathematics,
arithmetic in the higher branches, he had a
knowledge above the average of lads of his age.