g on the Columbia River has been
restored by this means to something of its former condition.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Diplomat and the Salmon--The Struggle for Existence--Salmon and
Steel-head Liable to be Confused--Sport in Tidal Waters--The
Campbell River--The Pioneers--A River of Fifty-Pounders--Smaller
Salmon on the Fly--Method of Fishing--Tackle--Typical Good
Bags--The Steel-head--Cost of Fishing--Dangers of Over-Fishing for
Canneries--A Good Trolling Time.

Though much more might be written about the canning industry and the
migration of the salmon, it is not material to the purpose of this book,
and has only been touched on to show how it bears on the question of
salmon fishing by rod and line; for it is often stated that the salmon
does not take the fly in British Columbia, as if it were a personal
matter and some perverse characteristic of the fish. There is another
story very popular in the west, relating what happened at the time when
the great fur companies held the country and were disputing and even
fighting for its possession. The Imperial Government sent out some
illustrious diplomat to report on the situation, and he described the
country as of no value and so hopeless that "even the salmon would not
take the fly." It is a tradition in British Columbia that on this ground
the now flourishing States of Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Oregon
were handed over to the Americans. The description given of the
conditions under which the salmon migrate is intended to show reasons
why the fish are unable to oblige the angler in this matter of taking
the fly. These conditions are obvious. The desperate struggle for
existence in an immense shoal of fish pressing upwards against the
tremendous current of a river abounding in strong rapids and whirlpools;
the length of the journey, several hundred miles in extent; the absence
of any chance of resting owing to the pressure of the multitudes behind;
and, finally, the state of exhaustion brought on by all these forces
combined--these things must, and indeed do, reduce the fish to such a
condition that its final energies are devoted to and exhausted by the
propagation of its species. Even if enough vitality were left to make it
take a bait, no sport would be obtained by the angler, and his sorry
capture would be generally unfit for food.

I have once or twice experimented by foul-hooking salmon in the tail in
the Nicola River, but af