30 FISHEKIES OF ALASKA, 1908. 



The large red-meated. kings are mild cured, while the small red- 

 meated and the white-meated fish of all sizes are usually shipped 

 fresh. The competition for fish was not so keen as last year, and as 

 a result prices were not so high. Early in the season 60 cents was 

 paid for red-meated kings of 17 pounds and over, and 15 cents for all 

 white-meated kings. All red-meated fish under 17 pounds were 

 counted two for one. The prices soon rose to 75 cents for red- 

 meated kings of 17 pounds and over (all under to count two for one), 

 and 25 cents for all white-meated fish. 



In southeast Alaska the proportion of white-meated king salmon 

 varies considerably in different places. In the neighborhood of 

 Tee Harbor last spring about half of the catch was white-meated 

 fish, while in the vicinity of Wrangell the white-meated fish consti- 

 tuted about 35 per cent of the total catch. One trap set in the 

 neighborhood of Auk Bay caught throughout the season 368 red- 

 meated kings and 250 white-meated kings. In the Alsek River but 

 5 white-meated kings were caught during the season. The white- 

 meated kings appear to be increasing in number, due doubtless to 

 the much greater destruction amongst the more valuable red-meated 

 fish. In the Cook Inlet region the run comprises red-meated fish 

 alone, while in the Bristol Bay region, in western Alaska, the earliest 

 runs are made up almost entirely of red-meated fish, the white- 

 meated ones appearing in the later runs. As a rule the white sal- 

 mon, in the neighborhood of Wrangell at least, are larger and fatter 

 than the red-meated fish. Some of the fishermen have an idea that 

 they are all males, but close inquiry developed the fact that this is 

 not true, the proportion of males and females in the white-meated 

 fish being about the same as with the red-meated ones. 



In disposing of his catch the fisherman insists that the buyer shall 

 take the white-meated kings along with the others, which he does 

 at a considerably lower price. Even thus the buyer experiences con- 

 siderable difficulty in disposing of them. At first the mild curers 

 took the larger ones and cured them, but soon abandoned this, as it 

 was found to be a difficult matter to dispose of them to the smokers, 

 their principal customers. The greater part of these fish are now 

 shipped fresh to Puget Sound points, where they are either sold as 

 king salmon to consumers who know their excellence, or else disposed 

 of under some other name. 



Some of the fishermen claim that king salmon spawn at different 

 periods of the year, and that they do not all die after spaAvning once. 

 In proof of these beliefs they instance the numerous small kings found 

 with well-developed spawn, and the many large kings with immature 

 spawn. On June 1 1 one of the authors saw at Juneau a roe, from, a 

 king salmon weighing about 25 pounds, which measured, in one very 

 slender strip, about 6 inches in length, and which was composed of 



