I employed my sons daily to collect this, till we had amassed a
large quantity; using some, in the first place, effectually to cover our
herring-barrels. Four barrels were salted and covered in this way; the
rest my wife smoked in a little hut of reeds and branches, in the midst
of which the herrings were laid on sticks, and exposed to the smoke of
a fire of green moss kindled below. This dried them, and gave them the
peculiar flavour so agreeable to many.
We were visited by another shoal of fish a month after that of the
herrings. Jack first discovered them at the mouth of Jackal River, where
they had apparently come to deposit their eggs among the scattered
stones. They were so large, that he was sure they must be whales. I
found them to be pretty large sturgeons, besides salmon, large trout,
and many other fishes. Jack immediately ran for his bow and arrows, and
told me he would kill them all. He fastened the end of a ball of string
to an arrow, with a hook at the end of it; he tied the bladders of the
dog-fish at certain distances to the string; he then placed the ball
safe on the shore, took his bow, fixed the arrow in it, and aiming at
the largest salmon, shot it in the side; the fish tried to escape; I
assisted him to draw the cord; it was no easy task, for he struggled
tremendously; but at length, weakened by loss of blood, we drew him to
land, and despatched him.
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