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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1888)
530 THE WEST SHORE. payed out into the water so a not to foul it, and then ii permM-d to float some distance with the tide or current, when it is again hauled into the boat and and the fish remold. It seems almost impossible for fmh to successfully run this gauntlet of nets, ag gregating fire hundred and forty-five miles in length, and costing not less than $300,0(1000 Jear M they have to bo renewed each scaion, yet that they do is proved by the great numbers that finally reach the spawning grounds. Some fishermen own their own Wals and net, worth about $100.00, and others ope rate lata belonging to the canneries, the former re- 527), constitute the next most important method f fishing near the mouth of the river, the location of majority of these being Baker's bay (Bee engrarta on this page) lying north of the channel and bar. trap is constrncted by driving a row of piles from tie shore or shoals toward the deep water where the fob are running, at the outer end the piles forming i rectangular enclosure or pound. On the piles is laid a netting of wire or twine, with a two-inch mesh in such a manner as to prevent the passage of the feh and lead them into the pound, from which they can not escape and can be easily removed. Between the P7 A- If -A " ''.II j ' '' . r' f,iii ffc MU' .V, hi, Mi t INM'KY AM. .fcYIN; RUK- roft M:TS.-.LE I'.UiE Ml. cmicg about one dollar each for their fish, and the Utter sixty cc tU. Trices vary in different seasons, but this is the average. Skill and bravery are both required by the bar fi.hermen, and annually half a hundred of them lce their lives among the breakers. In their rivalry to get the first chance at the fish as they enter the river, they crowd down upon the very verge of the bar, and every few days a boat is swamped in the I re akem Occasionally the luckless men are rescued by the crew of the life boat at Cape Hancock, but the majority pay for their temerity with their lives. Fish trap, or pound nets (s engraving oa page owners of the pound nets and the gill net fishermen there is constant friction, the latter deeming the pounds an infringement upon their rights to catch fish. Another method of fishing is shown in the o graving on page 523, and consists of operating tie old-fashioned seine from the shore or sand bars. A seine is about eight or nine hundred feet in length, with two and one-half and three-inch meshes, d is used near the head of the estuary, above th fishing grounds of the gill nets and traps. Sea fishing presents a peculiar aspect to one passes in a steamer. Men, horses and boats are seen c ing about in the shallow water, either plw&S the