82 FISHING-GKOUNDS OF NOKTH AMEKICA. 



There is one species of saud lauuce or "laut" (Ammoclytes personatus) which is extremelj' 

 abuudant iu most parts of Alaska, aud extends uorth to Poiut Belcher, as we certainly know ; 

 this lauuce is largely useful in the cod fishery and iu general hook-fishing iu Soutberu Alaska as 

 well ; its abundance is wonderful. 



The pike [Esox hicitis, L.) we have from Slave Lake; it is " couimou iu all the lakes aud pouds 

 of . . . Northern Alaska, but absent from the rivers. It is caught with seines in summer 

 and early winter. It is principally used for dog-feed, being of little value for the table.'" 



The family Microstomatulai as distributed in Alaska includes the smelts (two species), the 

 capelin, the sarf-sraelts (two species), and the eulaclion. The smelt, which is most abundant aud 

 important, resembles the common species of the Atlantic seaboard very closely; it may be, too, 

 that the second form, which is remarkably slender posteriorly, is merely the spent female of the 

 first. The distribution of these fish is probably northerly, as the National Museum Las no 

 examples from any poiut south of Saint Michael's; Steindachner, the describer of Osmerus dentex, 

 had it from De Gastrie's Bay. We obtained, September C, ISSO, from Eskimo, iu Eschscholtz 

 Bay, dried smelt which they had prepared for food. The capelin [Mallotus viUosus) is universally 

 and abundantly present throughout the Territory ; it plays a very important part in the salmon 

 and cod fishery, forming as it does the principal food of these fishes during a part of the summer. 

 Youug capelin are extremely abundant north of the Arctic circle, but we have uot seen them in 

 Southern Alaska ; the luimber annually consumed by cod aud salmon must be enormous. I have 

 taken forty from the stomach of a single cod on Portlock Bank ; salmon may be seen in pursuit 

 of capelin even in the brackish waters where small streams fall into the bays aud coves. The 

 species of Hypomesns, though of small size, form a considerable portion of the food-supply; one of 

 them is known in southern waters [H. pretiosm) ; the other, instead of spawning in the surf like 

 its southern congener, runs into fresh -water ponds to perfoi'm this function, aud seems to be 

 confined to Northern Alaska and Northeastern Siberia. A well-knowu representative of the 

 family of Microstomatidce is the eulachon or candle-fish [Thaleichihys jmdficus), an inhabitant of 

 the shores of the whole Gulf of Alaska. The uses and the mode of capture by Indians of surf- 

 smelts and eulachon are so well explained by Mr. Swan iu the ''Proceedings of the National 

 Museum,"^ that it is unnecessary to add anything to that portion of the subject. Eulachon have 

 been salted at Katmai on the peninsula of Aliaska and brought to Saint Paul, Kodiak. Mr. B. 

 G. Mclntyre, who gave me information concerning this industry, and furnished some examples of 

 the product, speaks highly of the table qualities of salted eulachon. Unfortunately there is no 

 harbor at Katmai, else it might become the seat of an important trade in this article. 



The whitefishes (Coregonidce) form one of the great staples of food iu Northern Alaska (from 

 the Yukon northward), replacing the salmon almost entirely iu the extreme uorth. There are 

 five species of Coregonus, the largest of which, as represented in the collections of the National 

 Museum, was once considered identical with the common diipciformis^ of the Great Lakes; it is the 

 fish for which Miluer proposed the name Kennicotti, and is quite distinct from the clupeiformis ; 

 this is the "Broad Whitefish" of Mr. Dall, which he says: "Is the next in size of the Alaska 



'Dall, ia lleport of tlio Coimnissioner of Agricviltuic, 1871 (for 1S70}, 3S7. 



-Vol. Ill, pp. 43 ami 257. 



^Steiiodus MacVenzii is the species lefeired to by Mr. Dall in the "Report of tl)e Commissioner of Agriculture for 

 1870,'' page 386, as the "Great Whitefish," concerning which he says: "This enormous whiteiish is the finest of its 

 tribe, both in size ami flavor. It is foumi iu the rivers most of the year, but is most plentifully obtained and is iu 

 its best condition about the months of June and July. We have seen them four feet long and vieighing about iifty 

 pounds. It is distinguished by its long nose and slender form, and is of a silvery white, somewhat darker above. 

 It is full of spawn from Sejiteniber to .lanuary, when it disappears." 



