THE ALASKAN FISHING-GROUNDS. 103 



the priDcip;iI aiul prevailing forms, aud the fact that the people of the legiou uot only consume 

 vast quantities themselves, but also divide their supplies with about two thousand natives from 

 the lower delta of the Yukon, is a suilicient voucher for the wonderful abundance of tish. 



The run of salmon up this stream is very great, and is long continued, the season opening 

 in June and not closing until the end of August. The density of the population, as so 

 remarkably portrayed in our list of the settlements at the mouth aud in the immediate country 

 adjoining, is such that in their active and energetic fishing for their own consumption they seem 

 to absorb the greater part of this salmon run; at least the natives at the source of the river 

 complain very often of the scarcity of salmon. Not only the people of the Kuskoquim proper fish 

 here, but even those of the lower delta of the Great Yukon. Two thousand of them come over 

 here to fish, making a sum total of six or seven thousand fish-eaters, consuming and wasting a 

 quantity of salmon that should feed at least six or eight times their number were the fish canned 

 or salted, instead of being used in their wasteful processes.' 



YUKON DIVISION. 



I shall combine here the two sections of Mr. Petroff, put down as Yukon delta and Uphoon 

 mouth to Anvik, with a population of thirty-three hundred and fifty-one. 



According to Petroff, hair-seals (two species) ascend the Yukon as far as three hundred to 

 four hundred miles. White whales or beluga are abundant in the mouths of the river, where they 

 pursue the salmon. 



The number of species of marine fishes is comparatively small, while there are a goodly 

 number of river fishes, particularly salmon and whitefisli. There is generally no trouble in 

 getting all the salmon required by the natives for bounteous subsistence, but Mr. Petroff mentions 

 a contingency that arose last summer by which a fish famine was caused at the mouth of the 

 Yukon. At the breaking up of the ice in the spring, it came down in such masses that it 

 grounded in the delta in the month of July and prevented the ascent of the salmon. Natives had 

 to seek food northward along the shore of Norton Sound and down on the Kuskoquim. To the 

 people of the Lower Yukon the absence of fish means starvation, unless a supply can be obtained 

 from other sources. The run of salmon in the Yukon is short, not much exceeding two months 

 in all. Mr. Dall has published a memorandum of the trap-fishing at Nnlato, on the Yukon, based 

 upon his observations extending over several seasons, and this will give a good idea of the species 

 taken and their relative abundance at different seasons. 



November. — The fish-traps are set for winter. A week or two usually elapses before the 

 trap takes any fish. The natives say that it is necessary for the resin to be washed out of the 

 wood of which the basket and funnel are made before the fish will approach the trap. The first 

 fish taken are the losh {Lota maculosa), which usually come in great numbers. 



Decembee. — Suckers and losh predominate. A few whitefish and a straggling salmon are 

 occasionally taken. 



January. — Much the same ; but the whitefish begin to be more plentiful. 



February'. — Losh scarce. The traps are filled with the different species of whitefish. 



March. — Much the same; but suckers begin to enter the traps. 



April. — Graylings and suckers very iilenty ; whitefish more scarce; a few losh taken. 



May'. — A few poor whitefish and small losh are taken, but the bulk of the catch is composed 

 of graylings. Ice carries away the traps. As soon as the river is clear new traps and gill-nets 

 are set. 



> Petroff, Preliiuiuary Report ou Census of Alaska, 1^81, p. Cv-i. 



