sea, or those of Clarke's Fork, a still greater distance. All the small tributaries of the Snake, Boise, Powder, Burnt, and Payette Rivers swarm with them in the months of September and October.
Great numbers of salmon die on having discharged their instinctive duty; some of them, evidently, because exhausted by their long journey, and others, apparently, because their term of life ends with arrival and spawning. Their six hundred miles of travel against the current, and exertion in overcoming rapids, or jumping falls, often deprives them of sight, and wears off their noses. Of course, all these mutilated individuals perish, besides very many others; so that the shores of the small lakes and tributaries of both branches of the Columbia are lined, in autumn, with dead and dying fish. But they leave their roe in the beds of these interior rivers, to replace them in their return to the sea by still greater numbers.
The fishery business has developed vastly improved methods of taking the salmon, including "salmon wheels," which, placed in the narrower portions of the Columbia, as at the Cascades, scoop them up by the hundreds every minute. The fishermen who supply the Astoria canneries, however, do so by means of boats and nets, which are thrown out at night, and drawn in at an early hour in the morning. It is a perilous occupation about the mouth of the Columbia, where currents, tides, and winds must be encountered. Formerly the men were employed and furnished with boats and nets, an outfit costing several hundred dollars. But in 1880 the fishermen, chiefly Scandinavians, combined to sell their fish by the piece, at fifty cents each; and this year they have asked a dollar, and a dollar and a quarter. At the same time, owing to the great amount of fish unconsumed in the market, from last year's catch, a low price for canned salmon is prevailing, and this year's business will not prove as remunerative as in former seasons. About four thousand men are employed every season in the salmon fishing and canning.
Besides the salmon of commerce, the Columbia furnishes a great many other species of edible fish, including salmon-trout, sturgeon, tom-cod, flounder, and smelt,—all of which are excellent table-fish, in their proper seasons.
There are three large lumber-mills located at Astoria, manu-
