The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: The Fish
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark - Fish. A general description of the beasts, Fish
and Fish, &c. found by the party in this expedition.
The
fish, which we have had an opportunity of seeing, are, the
whale, porpoise, skait, flounder, salmon, red char, two
species of salmon trout, mountain, or speckled trout, bottlenose,
anchovy, and sturgeon.
•1. The whale is sometimes pursued, harpooned and taken
by the Indians, although it is much more frequently killed
by running foul of the rocks in violent storms, and thrown
on shore by the action of the wind and tide. In either case,
the Indians preserve and eat the blubber and oil; the bone
they carefully extract and expose to sale.
•2. The porpoise is common on this coast, and as far up
the river as the water is brackish. The Indians sometimes
gig them, and always eat their flesh when they can procure
it.
•3. The skait is also common in the salt water: we saw several
of them which had perished, and were thrown on shore by
the tide.
•4. The flounder is also well known here, and we have often
seen them left on the beach after the departure of the tide.
The Indians eat this fish, and think it very fine. These
several species of fish are the same with those on the Atlantic
coast.
•5. The common salmon and red char are the inhabitants of
both the sea and rivers; the former are usually the largest,
and weigh from five to fifteen pounds: they extend themselves
into all the rivers and little creeks on this side of the
continent, and to them the natives are much indebted for
their subsistence: the body of the fish is from two and
an half to three feet long, and proportionably broad: it
is covered with imbricated scales, of a moderate size, and
gills: the eye is large, and the iris of a silvery color:
the pupil is black, the rostrum or nose extends beyond the
under jaw, and both jaws are armed with a single series
of long teeth, which are subulate and inflected near the
extremities of the jaws, where they are also more closely
arranged: they have some sharp teeth of smaller size, and
some sharp points placed on the tongue, which is thick and
fleshy: the fins of the back are two; the first is placed
nearer the head than the ventral fins, and has several rays:
the second is placed far back, near the tail, and has no
rays. The flesh of this is, when in order, of a deep flesh-colored
red, and every shade from that to an orange yellow: when
very it is almost white: the roes of this fish are in high
estimation among the natives, who dry them in the sun, and
preserve them for a great length of time: they are of the
size of a small pea, nearly transparent, and of a reddish
yellow cast; they resemble very much, at a little distance,
our common garden currants, but are more yellow. Both the
fins and belly of this fish are sometimes red, particularly
the male: the red char are rather broader, in proportion
to their length, than the common salmon: the scales are
also imbricated, but rather larger; the rostrum exceeds
the under jaw more, and the teeth are neither so large or
so numerous as those of the salmon: some of them are almost
entirely red on the belly and sides; others are much more
white than the salmon, and none of them are variegated with
the dark spots which mark the body of the other: their flesh,
roes, and every other particular, with regard to the form,
is that of the salmon.
•6. Of the salmon trout, we observe two species, differing
only in color; they are seldom more than two feet in length,
and narrow in proportion to their length, much more so than
the salmon or red char. The jaws are nearly of the same
length, and are furnished with a single series of small
subulate straight teeth, not so long nor as large as those
of the salmon. The mouth is wide, and the tongue is also
furnished with some teeth: the fins are placed much like
those of the salmon. At the great falls we found this fish
of a silvery white color on the belly and sides, and a bluish
light brown on the back and head; the second species is
of a dark color on its back, and its sides and belly are
yellow, with transverse stripes of dark brown; sometimes
a little red is intermixed with these colors on the belly
and sides towards the head. The eye, flesh, and roe, are
like those described of the salmon: the white species found
below the falls, were in excellent order, when the salmon
were entirely out of season and not fit for use. They associate
with the red char, in little rivulets and creeks: the Indians
say that the salmon begin to run early in May. The white
salmon trout is about two feet and eight inches long, and
weighs ten pounds: the eye is moderately large, the pupil
black, with a small admixture of yellow, and iris of a silvery
white, and a little turbid near its border with a yellowish
brown. The fins are small in proportion to the fish; are
bony but not pointed, except the tail and back fins, which
are pointed a little: the prime back fin and ventral ones
contain each ten rays, those of the gills thirteen, that
of the tail twelve, and the small fin placed near and above
the tail has no bony rays, but is a tough flexible substance,
covered with smooth skin. It is thicker in proportion to
its width than the salmon: the tongue is thick and firm,
beset on each border with small subulate teeth, in a single
series: the teeth and the mouth are as before described.
Neither this fish nor the salmon are caught with the hook,
nor do we know on what they feed.
•7. The mountain or speckled trout are found in the waters
of the Columbia within the mountains: they are the same
with those found in the upper part of the Missouri, but
are not so abundant in the Columbia as on that river. We
never saw this fish below the mountains, but from the transparency
and coldness of the Kooskooskee, we should not doubt of
its existence in that stream as low as its junction with
the southeast branch of the Columbia.
•8. The bottlenose is the same with that before mentioned
on the Missouri, and is found exclusively within the mountains.
•9. The anchovy, which the natives call olthen, is so delicate
a fish that it soon becomes tainted, unless pickled or smoked:
the natives run a small stick through the gills and hang
it up to dry in the smoke of their lodges, or kindle small
fires under it for the purpose of drying: it needs no previous
preparation of gutting, and will be cured in twenty-four
hours: the natives do not appear to be very scrupulous about
eating them when a little foetid.
Accounts of
the Shellfish
Accounts of the
Animals
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