APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 337 



seventeen vessels left San Francisco for cod fisliery on tlie Asiatic 

 coast. This was a long voyage, requiring eighty days in going and 

 returning. On the way better grounds were dis(;overed among the 

 Aleutians with a better flsh; and then, again, other fishing grounds, 

 better in every way, were discovered south of Alaska, in the neighbour- 

 hood of the 8humagins, with an excellent harbour at hand. Here one 

 vessel began its work on the 14th May, and, notwithstanding stormy 

 weather, finished it on the 24th July, having taken 52,000 fish. The 

 largest catch in a single day was 2,300. The average weight of the fish, 

 dried was 3 lbs. Old fishermen compared the fish in taking and quality 

 with that of Newfoundland. Large profits are anticipated. While fish 

 from the Atlantic side bring at San Francisco not less than 12 cents a 

 pound, it is supposed that Shumagin fish at only 8 cents a pound will 

 yield a better return than the coasting trade. It remains to be seen if 

 these flattering reports are confirmed by further experience. 



From an opposite quarter is other confirmation. Here is a letter 

 which I have just received from Charles Bryant, Esq., at i^resent a 

 Member of the Massachusetts Legislature, but for eighteen years 

 acquainted with these seas, where he was engaged in the whale fishery. 

 After mentioning the timber at certain places as a reason for the acqui- 

 sition of these possessions, he says: 



But the chiefest value, and this alone is worth more than the pittance asked for it, 

 consists in its extensive cod and halibut iish grounds. To the eastward of Kodiak or 

 Aleutian Islands are extensive banks or shoals nearly, if not quite, equal in extent 

 to those of Newfoundland, and as well stocked with fish. Also west of the Aleutian 

 Islands, which extend from Alaska south-west half-way to Kamtcliatka, and inclos- 

 ing that part of land laid down as Bristol Bay, and west of it, is an extensive area of 

 sea varying from 40 fathoms in depth to 20, where I have found the supply of codfish 

 and halibut unfailing. These islands furnish good harbours for curing and preparing 

 fish, as well as shelter in storm. 



In another letter Mr. Bryant saj^s that the shoals east of the entrance 

 to Cook's Iidet widen as they extend southward to latitude 50°; and 

 that there are also large shoals south of Prince William Sound, and 

 again oft" Cross Sound and Sitka. The retired shii)-nuister adds that 

 he never examined these shoals to ascertain their exact limits, but only 

 incidentally, in the course of his regular business, that he might know 

 when and where to obtain fish if he wished tliem. His report goes 

 beyond any charts of soundings which I have seen, although the charts 

 are coincident with it as far as they go. Cook particularly notices 

 soundings in Bristol Bay and in various places along tlie coast. Other 

 navigators have done the same. Careful surveys have accomplished so 

 much that at this time tlie bottom of Behring Sea and of Behring Straits 

 as far as the Frozen Ocean, constituting one immense bank, is com- 

 pletely known in its depth and character. 



Add to all this the official Ee])ort of Mr. Giddings, Acting Surveyor 

 of Washington Territory, made to the Secretary of the Interior in 

 1866, where he says: 



Along the coast, between Cape Flattery and Sitka, in the Russian possessions, both 

 cod and halibut are very plenty, and of a much larger size than those taken at the 

 cape or further up the straits and sound. No one wlio knows these facts doubts that 

 if vessels similar to those used by the bauk fishermen from Massachusetts and Maine 

 were fitted out here and were to fish on the various banks along this coast it would 

 even now be a most lucrative business. The cod and halibut on this coast, up near 

 Sitka, are fully equal to the largest taken in the eastern waters. 



From all this evidence, including maps and personal experience, it is 

 easy to see that the first condition of a considerable fishery is not 

 wanting. 



S. Ex. 177, pt. 4 22 



