98 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
The maintenance and upkeep of the villages, as well as the build- 
ings and equipment devoted to the sealing industry, received attention, 
and some additional construction was undertaken, including work 
started on four new houses for natives on St. Paul Island. Some 
repairing and resurfacing of roads was done on both islands. 
As heretofore, valuable cooperative service was rendered by the 
Coast Guard in maintaining a patrol for the protection of the fur 
seals and sea otters of Alaska, and by the Navy Department in detail- 
ing a vessel for transporting the annual shipment of supplies from 
Seattle to the Pribilof Islands and bringing out the season’s take of 
fur-seal skins. 
Acknowledgment is made of the assistance by members of the 
Bureau’s staff in the preparation of this document. 
CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION OF THE FISHERIES OF ALASKA 
On July 17, 1939, the House of Representatives adopted Resolution 
162 authorizing and directing the Committee on Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries, or a subcommittee thereof, to make an investigation 
of the fisheries of Alaska, particularly with reference to the use of 
traps in the catching of salmon, the advisability of maintaining or 
changing the prescribed fishing seasons, the effect of herring fishing 
operations upon the salmon fishery, offshore fishing by foreign nationals 
for crabs and salmon, and other matters concerning the conservation 
of the fisheries of Alaska and a reasonable development of the fishing 
industry. : 
Pursuant to this resolution a subcommittee was appointed, consist- 
ing of the following Members of Congress: Schuyler Otis Bland, Vir- 
ginia, Chairman; Monrad C. Wallgren, Washington; Ambrose J. 
Kennedy, Maryland; Frank W. Boykin, Alabama; Richard J. Welch, 
California; George N. Seger, New Jersey; and James C. Oliver, Maine. 
This committee, accompanied by James W. Gulick, clerk, and Ralph 
J. Sterling, reporter, sailed from Seattle on August 20 on the Coast 
Guard cutter Ingham to conduct the investigation as directed. 
In Alaska the Congressional committee was joined by a joint Terri- 
torial committee, appointed pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 
No. 1 at the 1939 session of the Territorial Legislature to facilitate 
and assist in the Congressional investigation petitioned by that resolu- 
tion. Five members of the Territorial Legislature had been appointed 
to the Territorial committee, as follows: Joseph Hofman, of Seward, 
and Henry Roden, of Juneau, members of the senate; and Harvey J. 
Smith, of Anchorage, A. P. Walker, of Craig, and James V. Davis, 
of Juneau, of the house of representatives. The committee which 
carried out the purpose of the resolution, however, was composed only 
of the four last-named members, as Senator Hofman died soon after 
the legislature adjourned and the vacancy was not filled. 
Owing to the outbreak of war in Europe and the probability of an 
early call of a special session of Congress, the committee’s work in 
Alaska was greatly accelerated, but hearings were held at all places 
scheduled, as fellows: Anchorage, September 1 and 2; Kodiak, Sep- 
tember 4; Cordova, September 5 and 6; Sitka, September 7; Juneau 
and Petersburg, September 9; Wrangell and Craig, September 10; and 
Ketchikan, September 11. Upon completion of the work in Alaska 
the committee left Ketchikan on the Ingham and arrived at Seattle 
