94 



FISHING-GROUNDS OF NORTH AMERICxV. 



It must be kept in iiiiiid tlmt one pound of vlali represents ten pounds of fresh lisL. .Mi-. 

 Fisher's estimates of the supplies of the settlements ou Cook's Inlet and part of Aliaska Peninsula 

 is as follows : 



The average retail price of fresh fish at Saint Paul is one-half cent per pound, while the 

 averao-e price of fresh beef is ten cents per pound, and of salt pork fifteen cents. Cooked oysters 

 are brought up from San Francisco and sell at forty cents per can. Canned lobsters from the 

 same city are retailed at the same price. Clams from the vicinity sell for twenty cents a pail, 

 fresh. Small quantities of salmon are smoked by the natives. Mr. Fisher names the following 

 shell-fish as of common occurrence : Cardium corbis, Gardium LaPeronsii, Modiola, Tapes staminea, 

 Saxidomus NuttaUii. 



THE KARLTJK RIVER SALMON FISHERIES. 



Karluk Eiver, on the west side of Kodiak Island, furnishes more salt salmon than any other 

 Alaskan stream, about sixteen hundred barrels having been secured there during the season of 

 1S80 by two firms. One of these fisheries is owned by the Western Fur and Trading Company of 

 San Francisco, and is operated by Capt. H. R. Bowen, of Saint Paul, Kodiak. Mr. Fisher has 

 obtained from Captain Bowen the following account of that fishery : It was established in 1880, at 

 the mouth of the river, and was active during June, July, August, September, and part of 

 October. Fish run up the river into a lake — the source of the river — about seventeen miles. 

 Tide-water extends up the stream about four miles. The only obstructions are rapids. All the 

 species of Oncorhynchus now recognized run into the river; they are known by the Russian names 

 " krasuoi riba," " keezitch," " chowichee," "gorbuscha," and "hoikoh." The trout or "sumgah" 

 (Salvelinus malma) also occurs here abundantly. 



Salmon are caught at this fishery by seines, in the handling of which dories are used. The 

 natives use their spears as well as seines; instead of dories they use bidarkas. There are about 

 three hundred natives at the Karluk settlement, nearly all of whom are Kodiak lunuit. It is 

 stated by Captain Bowen that these three hundred caught and dried at least one hundred 

 thousand salmon (averaging one-half pound each in the dried state) during the summer. 



The seines here are twenty-five fathoms long, three fathoms deep, with a mesh of three and 

 one-fourth inches; they cost thirty-dollars each. Four dories, sixteen feet long, are in use. The 

 fishery employs twenty men, five of whom are Norwegians and fifteen natives of Alaska. The 

 product of the fishery is as follows : 



O. nerka. 



June 16 



June 17 



Jane 18 



Juno 19 



June 20 



Juno 21 



Month of July 



Mouth of August 



0. keta and gorbuecha.' 



Angnst 12 



September 18 



Number 

 of fish. 



750 

 3,000 

 2,000 

 3,000 

 3,000 

 1,500 

 12.000 

 7.500 



18, 500 

 21, 000 



Estimnted 

 weight, 

 pounds. 



7,500 

 30, 000 

 20, 000 

 30, 000 

 30, 000 

 15, 000 

 120,000 

 75, 000 



185, 000 

 210,000 



Barrels. 



15 

 GO 

 40 

 GO 

 GO 

 30 

 240 

 150 



' M;m1o into 7tkaU. 



