They formed picturesque groups, some talking with purchasers and others collected around fires or near their piles of fish.
[Illustration: BOAT LOAD OF SALMON.] As I stood on the bank, a Gilyak boat came near me with a full cargo of salmon.

The boat was built very high at bow and stern, and its bottom was a single plank, greatly curved.

It was propelled by a woman manipulating a pair of oars with blades shaped like spoon-bowls, beaten flat, which she pulled alternately with a kind of 'hand-over-hand' process.

This mode of rowing is universal among the Gilyaks, but does not prevail with other natives along the Amoor.
Whenever I approached a group of Gilyaks I was promptly hailed with _'reba! reba!'_ (fish! fish!) I shook my head and uttered _nierte_ (no,) and our conversation ceased.

The salmon were in piles along the shore or lying in the native boats.