It Is
Said To Be Of Delicious Flavor, And So Fat As To Burn Like A
Candle, For Which It Is Often Used By The Natives.
It enters the
river in immense shoals, like solid columns, often extending to
the depth of five or more feet, and is scooped up by the natives
with small nets at the end of poles.
In this way they will soon
fill a canoe, or form a great heap upon the river banks. These
fish constitute a principal article of their food; the women
drying them and stringing them on cords. As the uthlecan is only
found in the lower part of the river, the arrival of it soon
brought back the natives to the coast; who again resorted to the
factory to trade, and from that time furnished plentiful supplies
of fish.
The sturgeon makes its appearance in the river shortly after the
uthlecan, and is taken in different ways by the natives:
sometimes they spear it; but oftener they use the hook and line,
and the net. Occasionally, they sink a cord in the river by a
heavy weight, with a buoy at the upper end, to keep floating. To
this cord several hooks are attached by short lines, a few feet
distant from each other, and baited with small fish. This
apparatus is often set towards night, and by the next morning
several sturgeon will be found hooked by it; for though a large
and strong fish, it makes but little resistance when ensnared.
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