FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 1908. 35 



age to get back alive to the water. This is most regrettable, as the 

 clog salmon which are packed in Alaska find a ready sale. 



Several comi)laints were received of Japanese sealers landing on 

 various islands in central and southeast Alaska, where they camped 

 for days at a time, hunting and fishing as they pleased, and destroy- 

 ing seals, salmon, and game when and where they pleased. The 

 revenue cutters devote practically their entire time to Bering Sea, 

 thus leaving the whole of central Alaska at the mercy of marauding 

 craft; and a repetition of the outrage of 1907, when the Indian vil- 

 lage of Uguiak, on Alitak Bay, Kadiak Island, was looted by the crew 

 of a Japanese schooner, may occur at any time. 



The United States circuit court of appeals at San Francisco this 

 year rendered a decision of great importance to trap fishermen in 

 Alaska and elsewhere on the Pacific coast, setting aside an injunc- 

 tion obtained by two fish-trap locators against the Columbia Can- 

 ning Company, of Haines. The original claim was that a trap main- 

 tained by the latter company at St. Marys Peninsula, on the east 

 shore of Lynn Canal, in navigable waters, effectively "corked" the 

 location staked out by the petitioners, and after trial the judge of the 

 First District Court of Alaska, before whom the action was brought, 

 ordered the company to vacate. The circuit court holds that while 

 the owner or locator of lands in Alaska which border upon navigable 

 or tidal waters has, under the general laws, the right of access to such 

 waters for the purpose of navigation, he can acquire no right or title to 

 the soil below high-water mark, and he can have, therefore, no right 

 of possession upon which he can base an action against an intruder 

 whom he charges with interference and obstruction in the erection 

 and use of a structure upon the shore below such high-water mark. 



POLLUTION OF W^ATERS. 



Fishermen in southeast Alaska complain of the dumping of saw- 

 dust and other sawmill refuse into the waters, claiming that this drifts 

 for miles in every direction and drives fish away. Unfortunately 

 there is nothing in the fisheries law which can reach this abuse. The 

 natural purity of Alaskan seas and streams has so far been little 

 fouled by the industrial wastes and sewage which pollute the drainage 

 in all thickly-settled regions. As population and manufacturing 

 increases, however, the tendency will be to increased pollution, and 

 the dumping of sawdust and sawmill refuse should therefore be dis- 

 continued now. It is everywhere recognized as inimical to fisheries, 

 and its proper disposal imposes little hardship. The United States 

 has a considerable and increasing body of state law on the subject, 

 and the growing sentiment o gainst the practice constantly elevates 

 the standard of public cleanliness in this respect. The very little 

 federal law of this character that exists does not affect state waters, 



