ALASKA FISHERY AND FUR-SEAL INDUSTRIES, 1926 227 
and St. George Islands were fed during the periods when sufficient 
es could not be obtained by the animals unaided. In the foxing 
sxason of 1926-27, 118 blue and 27 white pelts were secured on St. 
Pel Island and 610 blue and 3 white pelts on St. George Island, 
a total of 758 and an*increase of 33 over the previous season. An 
ample reserve of foxes was marked and released for future breeding 
stock. 
During the year two public auction sales of fur-seal skins were held 
at St. Louis by the department’s selling agents. At one of these sales 
fox skins from the Pribilofs also were sold. . 
Acknowledgment is made of the assistance rendered by members 
of the bureau’s staff in the compilation and preparation of this 
document. 
VISIT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES AND OTHER 
OFFICIALS TO ALASKA 
Commissioner O’Malley was in Alaska during much of the active 
salmon-fishing period in the summer of 1926, giving personal atten- 
tion to the important work of conserving the valuable aquatic re- 
sources of that Territory. The commissioner was thus able to give 
immediate consideration to modifications of the fishery regulations 
necessary because of developments of importance during the fishing 
season. The value of prompt and authoritative administrative action 
in this matter is obvious. 
The commissioner devoted most of his time to southeastern Alaska, 
with its multiplicity of fishery problems, but an extensive trip also 
was made to central Alaska, including Cordova, Seward, Anchorage, 
and Fairbanks. The bureau’s new patrol vessel Brant was utilized 
much of the time for cruising in Alaskan waters. This vessel sailed 
on its initial voyage from Seattle on July 9, and in addition to 
Commissioner O'Malley ee was aboard Congressman Milton W. 
Shreve, who accompanied the commissioner on a tour of inspection 
of the fisheries of Alaska lasting several weeks and extending as 
far as Fairbanks. 
Lawrence Richey, of the office of the Secretary of Commerce, was 
in Alaska for nearly a month in the summer of 1926, giving attention 
to various fishery matters, including particularly an examination of 
salmon-spawning waters tributary to Cook Inlet. Mr. Richey pro- 
ceeded on the Brant as far west as Seward and returned on that 
vessel with Commissioner O’Malley to Seattle, arriving there on 
September 15. 
Through inadvertence, the visit of United States Senator C. C. 
Dill, of Washington, to the Pribilof Islands in 1925 was omitted from 
the corresponding report for that year. Senator Dill was at St. 
Paul Island on July 1 and 2, 1925, observing sealing operations. 
Transportation from Seward to the Pribilofs and return to Seward 
was afforded by the United States Coast Guard cutter Haida. 
