THE SALMON AND TROUT OF ALASKA. 27 



the affair disgusted me ; and, as with my experience of 

 Spanish bull-fighting, one trial was enough. Imagine 

 so many fish that tons were the units used in estimating, 

 penned up by the walls of the seines, into an enclosure, 

 massed so solidly that five Indians, striking rapidly at 

 random into the mass, with short-handled gaff hooks, at 

 such rate that, upon one day's fishing, this boat, 

 manned by eight Indians and one white man, secured 

 thirteen tons of marketable fish. It was bloody, nasty 

 butchery, and sickened me. Not a fish attempted to 

 leap out of the net. 



McCauley supplied me with some data, from his point 

 of view. 



"About the middle of June, the fish are plentiful 

 enough to start the cannery, and the season lasts from 

 ten to twelve weeks." He has observed "Seven different 

 hinds of salmon, all of which are good for canning and 

 for the table ; but two species which come latest are the 

 most valuable, the flesh being very red and rich with oil" 

 (Kisutch and Crassna Eebia) ; that " all of the salmon 

 ' dog ' more or less, and that the dogging begins imme- 

 diately after they have attempted to enter the streams, 

 not before August ; that after this process has begun 

 (and he discovered it in fish which, to my unexperienced 

 eyes showed no signs of it) the value for canning teas 

 depreciated," and all such he rejected, and gave to the 

 flock of poor Indians, who, in their canoes, followed us 

 to secure them. If McCauley's ideas are correct, the 

 Alaska salmon caught in salt water, should be superior 



