FISHERIES OP ALASKA IN 1907. 



27 



of salmon, he is unable to secure rebates on the fry liberated, and the 

 hatchery thus is operated, and has been for fifteen years, without the 

 slightest possibility of a money return for work or expense, being a 

 heavy outlay in earnest effort to build up the fisheries of that region. 



At Fortmann hatchery the month of January was excessively cold, 

 and on the last day of the month a flume supplying water to a portion 

 of the hatchery was frozen solid. About 1 8,000,000 eggs dependent on 

 this water were removed from the hatchery and placed in a pond, but 

 practically all of them died. To increase the output this fall the 

 hatchery sent a party to Quadra, a distance of 61 miles, and here se- 

 cured over 6,000,000 eggs, but late advices are to the effect that these 

 do not promise well. 



The superintendent of Fortmann hatchery, as a part of his regular 

 campaign against the various enemies of the salmon and destroyers of 

 the eggs in the vicinity of the hatchery and spawning grounds, set a 

 trap of wire netting in Naha stream near the hatchery for the sculpins, 

 or so-called "bullheads," which frequent the spawning grounds to feed 

 on salmon eggs. The trap was baited with salmon eggs and the scul- 

 pins entered it readily. Forty thousand were taken during the sea- 

 son, 2,700 entering the trap during one night. The trap also took 

 numbers of young trout. The destruction of such enemies of the sal- 

 mon, which eat both eggs and fry, is obviously an important part of 

 salmon-cultural work. At Fortmann hatchery, before fry are planted 

 in the Naha, the stream is freed of trout by dynamiting the pools and 

 places in which they lurk. 



Output of the Salmon Hatcheries of Alaska 1906-7 and 1907-8. 



"Operated in 1906-7 but no report received; probably not operated in 1907-8. 



SALMON-MARKING EXPERIMENTS. 



Salmon-marking experiments, though open to various objections 

 and apt to be inconclusive, nevertheless are one of the few practicable 

 methods of studying the difficult problems of age and migrations of 

 the salmon, and are capable of being made to furnish useful informa- 

 tion. They involve a great deal of work, for it is necessary to ex- 

 amine large numbers of salmon at various localities each season to 



