18 ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES IN 1919. 



5 



roperly closing two tra])S in operation on the shore of Icy Strait on 

 Illy 20 and August 17, and for having constructed a trap in False 

 Bay, Chatham Strait, within 500 yards of the mouth of a salmon 

 stream. The company pleaded guilty and paid a fine of 1600. 



In answer to a complaint filed before the United vStates commis- 

 sioner at Juneau, Libby, McNeill & Libby pleaded guilty to having 

 failed, on July 20, to close its trap located on the south shore of Icy 

 Strait, and paid a fine of S200 and costs. 



In September the Hidden Inlet Canning Co. was indicted for con- 

 stnicting a trap in Peril Strait near False Island, within the pro- 

 hibited distance of a salmon stream. The case had not been dis- 

 posed of at the close of the year. 



The cases against the Carlisle Packing Co. and the Canoe Pass 

 Packing Co., indicted at Valdez in October, 1918, for having driven 

 and constructed certain fishing appliances on the tide fiats between 

 Mountain Slough and Cape Whitshed on the western side of the 

 Copper River delta, came on for trial at a term of tlie district court at 

 Cordova the latter part of September, 1919. The Government alleged 

 that the Carlisle Packing Co. had driven three fish traps along the 

 shore indicated, and to each of them a similar appHance was con- 

 structed and attached leaving no endwise space between the two 

 structures: and that the Canoe Pass Packing Co. had driven one such 

 appliance. The companies set up a defense that each of these struc- 

 tures as thus joined constituted but a single trap. Trial by jury 

 being waived by both companies, the testimony was heard on Sep- 

 tember 25 by District Judge Charles E. Bunnell, who found them 

 guilty as charged in the indictment. On September 30, the Carlisle 

 Packmg Co. was fined $450, or $150 for each double trap, and the 

 Canoe Pass Packing Co. paid a fine of $150. The costs of tlie trials 

 followed the judgments in both cases. 



At the Valdez term of the district court in October, 1919, the cases 

 of the Alaska Packers Association and the Alitak Packing Co. came 

 up on appeal from the court of the United States commissioner at 

 Kodiak. Each company was tried at Alitak in September, 19 18, for 

 the construction of a trap on Moser Bay within the prohibited lateral 

 distance of another trap, the two traps in controversy being owned 

 by the companies named. Trial in the lower court resulted in a fine 

 of $1 ,000 and the costs against each company. The case of the AHiak 

 Packmg Co. was tried first at Valdez and resulted in a conviction. It 

 was fined $500, or one-half of the amount of the fine imposed at 

 Kodiak; costs of the trials in both courts were added, amounting to 

 $563.90. The Alaska Packers Association was acquitted, the testi- 

 mony in the case clearly showing that at the time the construction 

 of its trap was l)egun there was not then any other fixed fishing appli- 

 ance within 600 yards laterally of its structure nor was any in process 

 of construction. A memorandum decision w%as given in the Alitak 

 case on October 24, 1919, by Judge Buimell which, because of its 

 peculiar interest to all operators of fish traps, is quoted here in full. 



The evidence in this case as per stipulation filed for and on l)ohalf of the United 

 States by the district attorney and for and on behalf of the defendant corporation by 

 its attorney of record consists of all the testimony tal^eu before II. H. Beck, commis- 

 sioner and ex-oflicio justice of the peace at Kodiak, Kodiak Precinct, in the ca,<e of 

 the United States of America r. Alitak Tacking Co., No. 5(i:i in the lower court, and 

 the United States of America v. Alaska Packers Association, No. 539 in the lower 



