"fishes are ever so much
more interesting than animals. There are such heaps of different kinds,
too!"

"The interest in work depends on how you look at it," soberly responded
the agent. "Obviously! But don't think the Bureau is experimenting with
every kind of fish in the ocean. There are only a few food fishes or
forms with commercial value that are exploited at all."

"But you were describing to me, only yesterday, the way they handle
millions of baby fishes annually. I've just got to get into the Bureau."

"Go ahead, then. I don't doubt we'll be glad to have you. I've done my
best to show you what you'll have to face," the official declared, "and
if you're still eager for it, why, go in and win. There's always a place
somewhere for the chap who is really anxious to work."

At supper that day, the decision was announced that the revenue cutter
would start for Valdez next morning, and Colin had to scramble around in
a hurry to take a last look at the seals, to get a small crate made for
the blue fox pup, which he was going to send home for his younger
brother to look after, and to put into a small trunk he had got from one
of the villagers the few things he had saved from the wreck and had been
able to buy in the village.

The trip down to the Aleutian Islands and through its straits was a
delight to Colin, and he became quite excited when he learned that the
second lieutenant had for years been attached to a revenue cutter which
had a wharf at the Fisheries Bureau station at Woods Hole, Mass. This
officer, who had a brother in the Bureau, was only too glad to talk to
the boy about the service, and Colin monopolized his spare time on the
journey. And when, one day, his friend depicted the immensity of the
great salmon drives of the Alaskan rivers, the lad grew so excited that
the lieutenant laughingly told him he expected some fine morning to find
that he had jumped overboard and had started swimming for the Ugashik
River or some other of the famous salmon streams of Alaska.

[Illustration: NATIVE SALMON TRAP ON AN ALASKAN RIVER.

_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]

[Illustration: MODERN SALMON TRAP ON AN ALASKAN RIVER.

_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]

Shortly before they arrived at Valdez, the lieutenant of the cutter
called the boy aside.

"Colin," he said, "didn't you tell me the other day that you were going
down to Santa Catalina?"

"Yes, sir," the boy answered. "Father's