206 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



of vessels arrives bringing the salmon fishermen and 

 their equipment to Alaska. The trap-nets are soon 

 set and are ready for the first run of fish. Other 

 vessels arrive, bringing labor and equipment to man 

 the canneries. 



The salmon swim up the rivers in great schools, 

 which swim past for days at a time. Each species 

 arrives in a given locality at a definite season of the 

 year. The Chinook or king salmon is the first to 

 arrive in most localities. The run of red or sockeye 

 salmon sometimes begins as early as May and extends 

 usually to the middle of August. The silver or coho 

 salmon runs later in the season than any other 

 species. 



When taken from the traps, the fish are placed in 

 large scows in which they are transported to the 

 canneries, which are often large factories where the 

 salmon are canned on a big scale. The first step of 

 the canning process is the cleaning of the fish, which 

 is accomplished by the use of modern labor-saving 

 devices. After the head and tail are cut from the 

 fish by means of a band-saw, the fish enters an auto- 

 matic dressing machine which removes all entrails, 

 fins, blood, and slime from the salmon. Formerly this 

 work was done by hand by Chinamen, vulgarly known 

 as "Chinks"; for this reason these salmon-cleaning 

 machines are known as "iron chinks." 



From the iron chink, the fish pass on to another 

 machine in which they are scaled, scraped, brushed, 

 and washed. From here, continuous belts carry the 

 fish to cutting machines, which cut the fish trans- 

 versely into sections of the exact length of the cans 



