FISHING. 185

CHAPTER XII.
Fishing.
Fishes and Fish Names.

Judged by the criterion of their vocabulary, the southwestern Déné tribes
are certainly more familiar with fish game. To speak of the Carriers alone,
it would suffice to glance at a dictionary of their language (if any was in
existence) to gather the fact that salmon must be their staple food. As a
matter of fact, they have no less than six species of that fish in their waters,
during some seasons of the year.

But where the richness of their terminology is truly remarkable is in
connection with the various stages or conditions of the same fish. Thallo
is with them the generic name of the sock-eye, or common salmon of com-
inerce, a word which by itself betrays the importance of the object it deno-
minates, since it might be translated the fish, or more literally the water-
fish (tha, water; d/o, fish). But the first thallo that makes its appearance at
the sources of the rivers or in the northern lakes is called ¢sétai; that which
enters minor creeks to spawn is known as tha-au-kwello, and the last to
arrive in the early fall goes under the name of sélé.

The male salmon is denominated hwos’té by the same tribe; the female,
’"Riini, and the fry, a@’kain. A female ready to spawn is known as yanthes’ga,
while the old male is called indifferently e@siyan or tsil. When dried and
stored away for ulterior use, salmon receives the name of pa, and such of
the fish as are cut up very thin become ’faz to the natives. If opened out
and free of bones, it is then ’kai,; but if simply opened without having the
vertebrae removed, it receives the name of ?’sé-ya’taz, and when cut open
through the back instead of along the belly, it is known as ’ta-us’faz. Finally,
when grilled for immediate consumption, it becomes e@fés; but if previously
soaked in water and boiled, it is called naltscel.

All these expressions, I repeat, refer to the same species of fish, Onco-
rhynchus nerka (Walbaum), or sock-eye salmon. They are not adjectives, but
nouns. But the waters of the western Dénés are visited by several other sal-
monoids. There are the big white-fleshed salmon (O. chavicha), which affords
excellent eating, but does not keep so well; the hump-back salmon (O. gor-
busca), which is of little economic value; the winter or dog salmon (O. keta),
a scarcely better article, and the cohoe (O. kisutch). To these we may add
the land-locked salmon (O. kennerlyi), a most palatable little fish, which does
not repair to the sea like all our other salmon, but follows the periodical
migrations to the spawning grounds that are distinguishing features of the
sock-eye, and ends in a similar decay and final dissolution.