Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/739

477 and proleotiug sliultor. lie poisoned the geese and ducks for pulling up his wheat, and killed the remaining ducks for sport. The Indian rebelled and fought to the last ditch for the beauties of nature and his natural food — and when ex- hausted, the white man put him on a Reservation and supported him in idle- ness with national taxes. Wliicli was the wiser of the two races? Later on in tliis chapter it will be seen liow the white man suffered for his folly and sur- rendered to his enemy.

There can be no doubt but that this Oregon country in its state of nature l)e- fore the white man came here was the richest region in animal life on the face of tiie globe : as it was also the richest iu animal life millions of years ago before the i)veseut mountain ranges were elevated from the dej^ths of the ocean. In the lour years from 1834 to 1838, the Hudson's Bay Company shipped from Old Ore- gon over ten million pelts of fur bearing animals to China and England. These pelts were made of the skins of beaver, marten, otter, silver, red and black foxes, niuskrats, bears, ermine, fisher, lynx, mink, wolf, badger, swan, and raccoon, to say nothing of the elk, deer, antelope, wild goats, and sheep that were not killed for their hides.

In the matter of tish anil game the improvidence of Oregouians has not been greater than that of the people of other States; although blessed with a greater abundance of these most attractive and valuable natural sources of food. The art and business of preserving the salmon in all its delicacy for food was per- fected on the Columbia j'iver in Oregon. The first salmon canning establishment was Viuilt on the Columbia in the year 1866, by Hume Brothers ; and from that be- ginning the business rapidly spread along the river and up and down the Pacific coast as far north as the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. And from that little can- nery packing about four thousand cases of fish, the first year, and not knowing whether it could be sold or not, the business has so grown in importance and wealth producing power that the Columbia river shipped 772,668 cases in the year 1911, more than five million dollars worth of fish, and could have sold twice that amount. This is an increase of 33 per cent on the output of canned salmon in 1910, and nearly double the amount of 1909.

The value of the various kinds of salmon shipped from the Columbia river during that period was : 772,688 cases canned salmon, at $5.50 a case, $4,249,674 ; 85,000 tierces of pickled salmon at $100 a tierce, $850,000 ; 800,000 pounds of frozen fish, at 11 cents a pound, $55,000; total value, $5,154,674. In the same period there were 6,575,377 bushels of wheat shipped out of the Columbia river district to various ports, and this at 80 cents a bushel had a value of $5,260,301.- 60, or only about $100,000 more than the value of the salmon.

It seems incomprehensible that the greed and selfishness of mankind, even those most benefited, should have been so short-sighted as to well nigh destroy such a great source of natural wealth — the harvesting of five million dollars worth of a fish crop without owning the river that produced it, or spending a dollar for planting or cultivation. Yet such was the haste and greed for fish that the cannerymen came near exterminating the salmon, fifteen years ago ; and to protect the great industry the towns people, country farmers, and professional iiuni — persons not directly profited by the salmon fisheries — were compelled to unite in demanding of the legislature legislation to protect the salmon, and to keep up the supply of fish with artificial hatcheries. In this way the great sal-