2 
506 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
plants, and salteries in the Pacific coast States and Alaska. The tables 
of capital invested, persons employed, and cases of salmon canned in 
Washington, Oregon, and California between 1892 and 1899 will be 
found of interest in showing the large increase and the relative changes 
in amounts by species and localities. For this period the pack of the 
three States shows an increase of 768,232 cases of 48 one-pound cans 
each. The increase from 1895 to 1899 amounted to 461,734 cases, 
chiefly from the catch of bluebacks, of which as late as 1894 only 
79,240 cases were canned, as against 523,615 cases in 1899. 

BLUEBACK OR RED SALMON (Oncorhynchus nerka). 
The blueback, or sockeye, is one of the smallest in size and best in 
quality of the several species of salmon. Being rich in oil and bright 
red in color, it has been favorably received wherever introduced, both 
in this and foreign countries. This wonderful increase in the prod- 
ucts of canned bluebacks has not resulted from any unusual abun- 
dance of fish, but from taking advantage of favorable circumstances 
that had long been neglected, by building a number of large can- 
neries near the fishing-grounds of northwestern Washington, to which 
reports of the U.S. Fish Commission had previously called attention. 
It is remarkable that this valuable fishing-ground, accessible by rail 
