FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. ne 
one share. Where the food is bought at the beginning of the season 
each man pays his share, or is charged with it. ‘With a crew of seven 
men, each member of the crew would pay one-eleventh of the cost of 
food. The first purse seining in Washington is said to have been in 
1894 or 1895. 
Gill nets.—Gill nets are of two kinds, drift and set, and are more 
generally used in the fisheries of Washington than any other form 
of fishing apparatus. The total catch with gill nets in 1915 amounted 
to 13,599,830 pounds, valued at $453,864, as compared with 21,- 
013,582 pounds, valued at $632,810, m 1904, showing a decided 
decline with this apparatus. In 1915, 19,760 pounds, valued at 
$446, were taken in the vessel fisheries, and about the same quantity 
in 1904. The products consisted mainly of the different species 
of salmon. Gill nets are fished in most of the tide-water streams of 
the State. The most prolific of these is, of course, the Columbia 
River. Another very important stream is the Quinault River, 
running through the Indian reservation of the same name. 
In 1915 a catch of more than one and a quarter million pounds 
of salmon was made in this stream by the Indians living on the 
reservation. These Indians are very industrious and took advan- 
tage of one of the best salmon runs recorded on the river. More 
than 90 per cent of the catch consisted of bluebacks, or sockeyes, which 
were used by the canneries at Aberdeen and Hoquiam. Drift gill 
nets are used much more extensively than set gill nets. 
A description of drift gill nets used in the vicinity of Seattle will 
answer in most particulars for those used-at other localities in the 
State. 
These nets are almost invariably of No. 40 linen twine, which for 
chinook salmon is 9-ply, for bluebacks 6-ply, and for silver and chum 
salmon 7-ply. No special nets are used for humpbacks and steel- 
heads. The following sizes of mesh are used: For chinook, 64 to 
8-inch; for sockeye, 53-inch; for silver, 6 to 62-inch; for chum, 
6 to 63-inch. Steelhead are usually caught in a 6? to 7-inch mesh. 
About the only nets of cotton twine used are those fished for salmon 
trout, another name for small salmon up to 2 pounds in weight; but 
even for this purpose the linen twine is preferable. It is customary 
for a fisherman to have a different gill net for each species of salmon 
except steelhead and humpback. The length of the nets varies from 
40 to 450 fathoms; the majority of the nets being from 150 to 200 
fathoms long. The shorter nets are used from rowboats and are set 
mostly in the Duwamish River. The longer nets are used from the 
gasoline boats and are fished in Puget Sound and other waters as far 
north as the Gulf of Georgia near Blaine and Point Roberts. The 
fishermen usually go to the more distant waters for bluebacks; for 
silver salmon they fish near Everett and San Juan Islands. The 
chum salmon are taken near Seattle and Rollingbay, as are also the 
chinooks. The depth of the nets ranges from 30 to50meshes. About 
one-half of the boats used for drift gill netting at Seattle are gasoline 
with an average value of $600. The other half are row skiffs worth 
$25 each. From one to two men go in a gasoline boat, but.only one 
man goes in a skiff. The nets were formerly set at an angle, but the 
practice now is to set them in a straight line. 
The fishermen at Everett use these drift gill nets in the Snohomish 
River. Only rowboats are used on the stream. The nets average 
