56 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



porting vessels of all the canneries make their anchorage at this 

 point. In the extrome southwest corner of Ohignik Bay is the 

 entrance to Chignik Lagoon. At the head of this lagoon, from 

 which all the canneries draw their supplies of red salmon, is the 

 mouth of the stream up which go the schools. 



Chignik River is about 6 miles long, with an average width of 100 

 yards, and its depth is such that a boat can ascend only at high 

 water. It has its rise in two lakes, each about 10 miles long 



Red salmon predominate in the runs, although all five species are 

 to be found. A run of very small red salmon, weighing about 2 

 pounds, and known as Arctic salmon, appears here every year. 



Practically all of the fishing here is with traps, although gill nets 

 and seines have also been used at times. 



This bay, next to Karluk Spit, has been the scene of more bitter 

 fights for supremacy in canning than any other place in Alaska. 



In 1888 the Fishermen's Packing Co., of Astoria, Oreg., sent a party 

 to Chignik Bay to prospect for fish, and they returned in the fall with 

 2,160 barrels of salt salmon. 



The next year, this company, operating imder the name of the 

 Chignik Bay Co., built a cannery on the eastern shore of the Lagoon, 

 2^ miles from the entrance. 



The same year the Shumagin Packing Co., composed of capitalists 

 from Portland, Oreg., and the Chignik Bay PacMng Co., of San 

 Francisco, built and operated canneries close to that of the Chignik 

 Bay Co. All tliree of these companies soon arrived at a working 

 agreement and fuially combined into one organization. All were 

 operated in 1889, 1890, and 1891. In 1892 they all joined the pool 

 01 the Alaska Packing Association, and the cannery of the Chignik 

 Bay Co. alone operated. In 1893 they all became members of the 

 Alaska Packers Association. 



Since 1891 only the cannery of the Chignik Bay Co. has been oper- 

 ated. The Shumagin building has been moved alongside the former 

 and the machinery consolidated, so as to form practically one large 

 cannery. 



In the spring of 1896 Hume Bros. & Hume built a cannery on the 

 eastern side of Anchorage Bay and made a pack that year and in 

 1897. 



The same spring the Pacific Steam Whaling Co. built a cannery 

 one-fourth of a mile south of the Hume cannery, and made a pack 

 that year and in 1897. In 1901 this plant, also that of Hume Bros. 

 & Hume, became part of the Pacific Packing & Navigation Co. The 

 failure of this company in 1904 threw its properties onto the market 

 and most of them, including the two Chignik canneries, were pur- 

 chased by the Northwestern Fisheries Co., which in 1905 shut down 

 the Hume Bros. & Hume plant for good and has operated the other 

 plant ever since. 



In 1910 the Columbia River Packers Association built and operated 

 a cainicry on Anchorage Bay, and has operated it every year since. 



The three companies operating here have an amicable agreement 

 under which they each operate the same number of traps and divide 

 equally the salmon caught. 



