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- 44 VICTORIA ILLUSTRATED.
cured kept well, and was the staple food of the natives for the greater part of the year.
Their manner of catching them was ingenious. The Indians did not know how to make nets, but they fastened a bag, made of the bark of the
cedar tree, to the end of a forked pole. A rope from this bag was held by the fisher-man. There were two Indians in each canoe, one to
fish and the other to steady and guide the little craft. When the fisherman felt that there was a salmon in his trap, he pulled the string,
which closed it, thus securing the fish. The fishing was done in companies, fifty or sixty canoes forming the fleet, which stretched almost
from one side of the river to the other. Large numbers of salmon were caught in this way. The Hudson Bay Company, in the early days,
purchased a considerable proportion of the catch. The Sandwich Islands were then the principal market for the salmon caught in British
Columbia waters. The fish were pickled, and used to provision the whalers, which made those Islands their rendezvous. There being no cattle
on either the islands or the coasts of the Pacific, the pickled salmon were made to do duty for salt beef.
When the country, which is now British Columbia, was first settled, and when adventurers flocked to it from all quarters in search of gold,
white men began to catch salmon with gill nets. The catch was pickled, and a large quantity was sold to the miners and other settlers. It
was not until 187o that an attempt was made topreserve the salmon by canning. A Mr. Stamp, who does not appear to have been very successful,
and Mr. Ewen, made a beginning in that year in a small way. They had many difficulties to encounter, but Mr. Ewen surmounted them all,
established a prosperous business, and is now hale and hearty, as active and energetic as ever he was. Mr. Sproat went into the canning
business next year, and he was followed by Findlay, Durham & Brodie.
The salmon canning industry did not at first progress very rapidly, for we find that in 1876 there were only three salmon packing concerns
in the Province in active operation. These were Ewen & Co., Findlay, Durham & Brodie, and Holbrook & Co. The whole pack that year amounted
to only 9,847 cases of 48 cans each. The reader will be able to form a pretty accurate idea of the progress of the salmon canning industry
from the following statement of factories in active operation :
No. of
Canneries. Pack.
1876 3 9,847
1880 7 61,849
1885 9 108,517
1890 34 409,464
For some years the salmon packing business was confined to the Fraser River, but in 1877 a cannery was established at Skeena. At different
periods since then, salmon have
NICHOLLES AND RENOUF, HARDWARE
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