THE COD FISHERY OF ALASKA. 



225 



be about $367.81, whicb will leave him perhaps $340, or an average of nearly $30 per month the 

 year round, clear of necessary expenses. 



At Saint Paul, Kodiak, the average daily catch per man is 200 fish, which are worth, dressed, 

 $4. Very little cod is shipped to San Francisco from that point, the major portion being dried by 

 the natives for their own use. 



PKODXTCTS OF THE FISHERY. The greater portion of the Pacific cod are salted in the hold 

 of the vessel and brought to San Francisco to be kept in pickle until they are wanted for the 

 market, when they are "flaked" for a short time. The Pirate Cove fish are kenched in a building 

 put up for the purpose, except the small ones, which are pickled. Kench-cured and pickle-cured 

 cod are therefore the principal products of the fishery. Cod sounds at the Shumagins a-re said to be 

 thin and tough and they are not put up. The heads are thrown away also. The Western Fur and 

 Trading Company of San Francisco had put up for them, experimentally, by Capt. H. E. Bowen, 

 at Saint Paul, 250 pounds of tongues in kits of 25 pounds each, 3,000 pounds of dried codfish in 100- 

 pound boxes, and 10,500 pounds of boneless cod in 30-pound boxes. 



Three sorts of codfish are usual in the market: Bundled, the common kind; bosed, the largest 

 selected, in 100-pound boxes; boneless, the skin and vertebrae removed, in 12- and 30-pound boxes. 



One of the San Francisco firms brand their best fish "Extra George's Codfish," anchor trade- 

 mark. 



In 1866 10,000 gallons of cod-liver oil were reported. In 1879 Lynde & Hough brought to the 

 San Francisco market 3,000 gallons said to have been of superior quality. 



The following table shows the quantity and value of cod taken in the Pacific Ocean fishery 

 during the years 1865 to 1880: 



To this yield must be added the value of the cod-liver oil, of which 13.000 gallons are recorded, 

 and of the tongues and dried and boneless fish prepared for the Western Fur and Trading Com- 

 pany at Kodiak. The figures given above relative to the number of fish taken each year are from 

 the San Francisco Commercial Herald and Market Review. They agree in the main with numbers 

 gleaned from other sources, but I have never seen any two statements that are exactly alike. The 

 yield is put down at probably less than it really was, certainly not greater. The comparative 

 results from the Okhotsk and the Shumagins for the years 1878, 1879, and 1880 appear in the fol 

 lowing table : 



SEC V 15 



