ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



407 



millions of mouoy tliey liave invested in the Alaskan salmon bnsiness, 

 and ask us if we can possibly believe that they would permit the doiny,- 

 of anything wliicli could injure the salmon or reduce the annual supply, 

 it looks so reasonable that tliey should be fully alive to their own finan- 

 cial interests that at first it is hard to realize that the salmon are being 

 destroyed very rapidl}-, and those who have not been on the ground 

 to see it with their own eyes are not to be blamed for doubting the 

 assertion. 



It is nevertheless only too true, and a few words of explanation will 

 make it quite clear to the doubting ones. 



It is true in a general way that the canners themselves do not fence 

 or dam the streams, but they bay the salmon from the men who do. 



At Loring, for instance, Captain Hooper and Mr. Hamlin undertook 

 to enter the stream in a boat, but were prevented by a dam clear across 

 from bank to bank. That fence had been there for years, and the 

 salmon, running up against it in their efibrts to enter the stream 

 every year for purposes of reproduction, were caught and canned until 

 the regular supply was exhausted, and other streams were laid under 

 tribute to keep the canneries going. 



No one had even thought it worth while to remove the old dam. 



The gentleman who gave me the iiifornmtion has been a resident of 

 Loring for the i>ast eleven years, and knew of what he talked. 



Among many other things, he said: "Because of the bringing of 

 whites and Chinese here from San Francisco the natives are crowded 

 out, and only about 6 per cent of those formerly employed can now find 

 work at Loring." 



What is true of Karluk and of Loring is also true of every place in 

 Alaska where salmon are canned — wherever two rival canneries are 

 located on the same stream there are neither dams nor fences allowed, 

 but neither is there time given the fish to enter and ascend the stream, 

 and the consequence in either case is to destroy the salmon. 



Wherever a cannery is located far enough away from rivals a dam, 

 fence, or some other mode of trapping salmon is resorted to and relied 

 on for a steady supply until the river is fished out. 



Speaking to one of the superintendents at Karluk, and asking him 

 for reliable information, he said: 



Wherever rivalry does not exist on auy fishing river in Alaska there generally exists 

 a (lam, barricade, etc., to wit, Chigjiik Bay, on the north side of the Aleutian Penin- 

 sula, is tished by means of a fence. There is a fence at Loring, in southeastern Alaska, 

 and there exists a fence in the small tributary stream at its confluence with the 

 Nushigak River, Bristol Bay, Alaska. Up in Cooks lulet, 3 miles below the mouth 

 of the Copper River, there exists a weir extending out into the inlet 400 yards, to which 

 is attached a i)ound net. 



1 asked him, "How can the Karluk Eiver be made self-sustaining?" 

 to which he replied : 



(1) By establishing a weekly close season. 



(2) By prohibiting fishing in the river (excepting Indians with hook or spear). 



(3) When it is too rough to fish on the ocean beach lish will enter the river if let 

 alone. 



The fish naturally run to the river on the tuini of the ocean tide, but when it is 

 storming the fish are unable to enter the river by crossing the bar on account of the 

 flying gravel, which scares them otishore. 



At half tide, however, when the bar is covered by 6 or 8 feet of water, the fish 

 make a break across the bar and enter the calmer water of the river. 



When the salmon first enter the river they do not go directly up to the spawning 

 grounds or lakes, but remain for weeks in the brackish waters until they are ripe and 

 ready to spawn, and for this, if for no otlier rcnson, the Government ought to prohibit 

 the taking of the fish tliat have once escaped the nets below and entered the brackish 

 or tide waters of the river. 



