10 SPORT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

How high a leap a salmon actually can make has
been much discussed, and in this connection I may
mention a certain waterfall some seven hundred miles
up the Columbia River, named the Kettle Falls. These
falls consist of a series of cascades, the highest of which
has a perpendicular fall of from twelve to twenty feet,
according to the level of the water in the river. This
seems to be the highest fal] that the salmon is known
actually to pass.

From the moment the salmon enters fresh water it
ceases to take any food, and its stomach shrivels up toa
mere nothing, but it nevertheless may be caught on a
bait, which is a curious fact. At this period of its
existence, there is not much left of the fine, sleek,
silvery fish which emerged in its full power from the
ocean. Battered and torn from many fights, with
shreds of skin flapping about it, yellow and red splotched
in colour, it has become weak and languid in its move-
ments. The end of its existence is now drawing near.
According to Bryan Williams the pairing has taken
place on the way up the rivers to the spawning grounds,
and the spawning generally occurs late in the autumn ~
or early in the winter.

When the salmon finally reach the spawning places
far in the interior, the male fish prepares with the nose
and tail a shallow bed in the sand of the river bottom,
preferably where the current is fairly strong and with
a depth of from four to five feet. Here the female
deposits the eggs, which are then covered up with silt
and sand, and the fish again float down stream.

They do not get very far, however, as after the lapse
of two or three days they die, and the banks of the
rivers are lined with thousands of dead and dying