which project out over the water. Here stand Chinamen, two at each table, armed with long, sharp knives, who, with great celerity and skill, disembowel and behead the fresh arrivals, pushing the offal over the brink into the river at the same time. After cleaning, the fish are thrown into brine vats, where they remain from one to two days to undergo the necessary shrinkage, which is nearly one-half. They are then taken out, washed thoroughly, and packed down in barrels, with the proper quantity of salt. That they may keep perfectly well, it is necessary to heap them up in the barrels, and force them down with a screw-press.
The canning process, which was kept secret for one or two seasons, is a much more elaborate one, requiring a large outlay, many hands, and much skill and precision, for its success. Such was the profit derived from this business that canneries multiplied rapidly until 1880, when it reached its height, since which time there has been a decrease in the output, owing to over-fishing. The legislature has come to the protection of salmon with a law confining fishing to a period from the first of April to the first of August. A hatchery is also in operation on the Clackamas River, a branch of the Wallamet, where spawn is cared for and developed, the young fish being placed in the river at a proper stage of growth. With these precautions, it is hoped to save this industry from further loss, and even to excel its former yield.
There are nineteen canneries at Astoria, in which are invested two million dollars, and almost as many more which are tributary to it, the capital operating them being furnished by Astoria. Shipments are made direct to foreign countries, as well as to domestic ports. In 1889 one cargo of salmon which was cleared for Liverpool was valued at three hundred and fourteen thousand three hundred and three dollars, the largest cargo, with one exception, ever cleared direct, by sail, for a foreign port from 4he Pacific coast. Astoria is the greatest salmon-fishing station in the world, the canneries using between four hundred thousand and five hundred thousand salmon annually, and Astoria sends out larger cargoes by sailing-vessels than San Francisco of fish and wheat.
There is no part of the Pacific coast so well adapted to fish-
