FISHERY INDUSTRIES. OL 
the scope of the law authorizing the Secretary of Commerce to impose 
limitations or prohibitions upon fishing within streams and 500 yards 
outside the mouths thereof. In promulgating the regulations it was 
thought that limitations upon fishing on the flats were essential to 
the protection of the salmon. The idea also was to broadly distri- 
bute any burden of necessary limitations upon fishing. 
Before the fishing season of 1918 opened a number of interested 
cannery men requested the Secretary of Commerce to modify the 
order. On May 18, 1918, an informal hearing took place at Seattle, 
at which time discussion occurred as to the best method of handling 
the matter. The results did not prove helpful. 
As the season advanced it became obvious that the regulations were 
in need of revision, hence on September 16 announcement was made 
by the Secretary of Commerce of a formal hearing at Seattle on 
November 22 to take up the matter. Asa result, the new regulations 
which appear on page 11 in this report were promulgated on Decem- 
ber 20, 1918. 
The Bureau’s activities in the Copper River region were under the 
immediate supervision of Assistant Agent E. M. Ball. The following 
extracts from Mr. Ball’s reports submitted at the close of the season 
appear of interest: 
The Copper River is the largest salmon stream in central Alaska and the one of 
greatest commercial importance. It is a very muddy, glacial river several hundred 
miles in length. It is fed by a number of fair-sized rivers, nearly all of which are of 
glacial origin. The river carries at all seasons a considerable amount of silt, but par- 
ticularly during the summer months, when the glaciers are most active. At times it 
may be almost liquid mud. In the course of years a large tract of land has been built 
up at the mouth of the river, which is approximately 40 miles in width from east to 
west and 10 miles in depth from north to south. This land is known as the delta of 
the Copper River. Through it the river has maintained one main outlet to the sea 
and seven or eight lesser channels, each of which bears a distinctive name. The 
main channel is broken by many gravel bars, which appear as barren islands at low 
water. Near this channel are several sand islands which have been built up by wind 
and water to an elevation of several feet above the surrounding country. The greatest 
deposit of mud occurs to the west of the main channel and it constitutes the marsh- 
lands of the delta, being covered with vegetation to the line of mean high tide. The 
several outlets of the river are connected by many smallsloughs, which form a veritable 
network of waterways throughout the delta. Seaward from this higher marshland 
to the sand bars which parallel the shore some 3 or 4 miles distant is a large area known 
as the tide or mud flats of the Copper River, where the numerous channels converge 
and lead to the ocean through the breaks in the sand bars beyond. When the tide 
ebbs from the flats, these channels appear merely as continuations of those passing 
through the marshlands. The greater part of the flats is bare at low water. Atsuch 
times very shallow draft boats may be operated about the delta, but their movements 
are limited perforce to the use of the main channels. The river from the head of the 
delta to Miles Lake, a distance of approximately 20 miles, is swift and shallow and 
flows through a bed of glacial gravel. Except for a bend or two just below Childs 
Glacier its course is straight and through an open country. 
Miles Lake is simply a widening of the river where it strikes against the face of Miles 
Glacier. Itis nearly 4miles wide and 6 mileslong, The lake is said tobe very deep, 
especially along the face of the glacier, which fact is indicated by the time that large 
pieces of ice which fall from the glacier remain submerged, often for several seconds. 
The northern shore is very abrupt, as is also the southern except at one place where a 
small stream has deposited considerable sediment. The west shore is very flat and 
is strewn with many bowlders. Miles Glacier forms the eastern shore. 
A mile or more above the lake the river emerges from Abercrombie Canyon, which 
is barely 2 miles in length and about 1,000 feet in width. There are two pronounced 
rapids in this part of the river where the width at the head of each may be not more 
than 600 feet. On the west side of the canyon are precipitous mountains; on the east 
side is a moraine which is still underlaid with ice. On the east side of the river at 
the northern end of the canyon pockets known locally as ‘‘bear holes” have been cut 
into this buried ice. The name probably arises from the fact that bears came to this 
