160 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



of pilchards are caught that the canners cannot make 

 use of all of them, so that many are converted into 

 meal and oil. 



While Alaska's bank fisheries have not been ex- 

 tensively exploited, her coastal fisheries constitute 

 her most important industry. The prepared fishery 

 products of this territory are of greater value than 

 those of any other part of the country; they are 

 now even greater than those of New England. In 

 1867, when Alaska was purchased from Russia, most 

 persons could not see what value it could have. It 

 was called "Seward's icebox" and similar derogatory 

 names. We paid $7,200,000 for Alaska; and now 

 we obtain ^yc times this amount of revenue each 

 year from her fisheries. We think of Alaska as a 

 great producer of gold, yet compared with the value 

 of her fisheries the gold production seems negligible. 



Alaska's many thousand miles of coast-line, ex- 

 tensive rivers, and vast banks are excellent fishing 

 grounds. Here fish are so plentiful that only the 

 choicest of food fishes are taken. The finest of these 

 is the salmon, which is taken commercially along the 

 Pacific coast from the Sacramento River northward, 

 though nearly three fourths of the total catch now 

 comes from Alaska, which produced thirty-five mil- 

 lion dollars' worth of salmon products in 1925. More 

 than four hundred million pounds of the fish were 

 caught. Such a large quantity is hard to appreciate ; 

 it is easier, perhaps, to try to visualize it in larger 

 units. If these two hundred thousand tons of fish 

 were placed in barrels holding two hundred pounds 

 each, and the barrels were stacked end on end one 



