BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 313 



this fleet last year, and the carcasses of some of them were boiled and 

 made into scrap, which sells when dried at 822 a ton, the only objection 

 to it being the large percentage of oil which it contains. That made to 

 date averages about 25 per cent of oil. [Extract from a letter of Mr. 

 K. Edward Earll to Prof. S. F. Baird, dated Gloucester, Mass., Septem- 

 ber 17, 1886.] 



Salmon packing on the Columbia Eiver in 1886.* — The salmon 

 industry is on the decline on the Columbia Eiver, the total pack for 

 this season being about 436,000 cases,t against 565,000 in 1885, and 

 626,000 in 1884. The main cause of this falling off is owing to the greed 

 of the fishermen. In former times the fish were caught the entire length 

 of the river as far as the cascades, but by the wheel system in the rapids, 

 and by the entrance at Astoria being almost completely blocked with 

 nets, traps, and seines, not enough get through to the spawning-grounds 

 to keep up the supply. So persistent are the gill-net fishermen that 

 boats go far out from the mouth of the river, and as a consequence many 

 are lost in the breakers on the treacherous sand-bar, which is a terror 

 to all navigators, even in the calmest weather. Fifty men have been 

 lost this season in this perilous business. 



There are four methods of fishing: By the wheels; the traps (called 

 pounds on the New England shores) ; the seines, which are hauled by 

 horse-power in the middle of the stream at low tide; and the gill-nets, 

 the latter being the most important, both in the number of men employed 

 and in the catch. 



At Astoria, Oreg., where the Columbia is 12 miles wide, I boarded a 

 tugboat and explored the harbor and observed the fishing, following 

 the unfortunate fish from the nef until safely packed in pound cans and 

 cased ready for the Portland steamer. The number of men engaged in 

 this comparatively new industry is estimated at twelve thousand, about 

 one-third being employed on the river and the balance in the canneries. 

 Of the latter, fully three thousand are Chinamen. The labor societies, 

 it is said, will demand the expulsion of these Chinese next year, which 

 if successful, my informant said, would compel the majority of the pack- 

 ers to close their canneries. 



The perfection to which the art of preparing this wholesome food for 

 market has attained is the admiration of all who inspect its workings 

 in detail. lu all of the packing houses cleanliness is enforced from the 

 dressing to the last act of filling the cans. Hence no one need fear to eat 

 canned salmon, if packed by a reliable house under the factory label. 

 Not a few packers, however, put uj) what are called " seconds," which 

 may be a poorer grade of fish called " steel-heads," or fish too long out 



* This is taken from the letter of a correspondent to the Journal, dated Trinidad, 

 Colo., August 24, 18dtj. 



t The pack for 1866, as here given, is too small. The figures mentioned for 1S84 and 

 lbd5 may be regarded as approximately correct, though not strictly so. See Fish 

 Commission Bulletin for lSd6, pp. 90, 139, and 286. 



I 



