76 U. S. BUREAU or FISHERIES. 



average 300 fathoms in length, with meshes suitable for the particular 

 species sought. In Alaskan waters the nets vary greatly in length 

 and depth, depending upon the places whore fished. 



Drift gill netting is prosecuted chiefly in the estuaries of the 

 rivei"s in and near the channels. If the water is clear the nets are 

 set only at night, but should the water be muddy or discolored with 

 glacial silt, fishing can be carried on either night or day. Night fish- 

 ing is most common in the States, while day fislung is most common 

 in Alaska. When fishing in rivers, it is necessary to work in a straight 

 stretch of water of fairly uniform depth and free from snags or sharp 

 ledges, these being called "reaches." 



In setting the net the boat puller rows slowly across the stream 

 while the otlier man pays out the apparatus, to the first end of which 

 a buoy has been attached. When about two-thirds of the gear is 

 out, the boat is turned downstream at nearly right angles to her 

 former course, so that the net, when set, approximates the shape of 

 the letter L. The net is laid out at nearly right angles or diagonally 

 to the river's course, so that it will intercept the salmon that are 

 running in, and is usually put out about an hour before high-water 

 slack and taken in about an hour after the turn of the tide. In 

 Alaska the fishermen usually fish on both the high and low slack. 

 The nets are allowed to drift for the time specified, the fishermen 

 drifting along at one end, then the not is hauled into the boat over 

 a wooden roller fixed in the stern, and the fish, whii^h have become 

 gilled in the meshes, are removed, stunned or killed by a blow on the 

 head, and thrown into the bottom of the boat. 



Set gill nets are made in the same way as drift nets, in many in- 

 stances being fragments of the latter, and are usually operated in the 

 upper reaches of the rivers. They vary in length from 10 to 100 

 fatnoms, from 35 to 65 meshes in depth, and have the same sizes of 

 meshes as the di-ift nets, the size varying, of course, with the species 

 sought for. Sometimes these nets are staked, sometimes anchored, 

 while occasionally only one end is tied to the shore or a stake set in 

 the water. 



On the flats off the mouth of the Stikine Kiver, in southeast Alaska, 

 a combination of the drift and set method is followed. A double set 

 of stakes, about 6 feet apart, are set out from the shore for a distance 

 of several hundred yards. An hour or two before slack water the 

 fishermen pay out the net parallel to the line of stakes and about 50 

 feet from them. The tide drifts the net down until it is caught 

 against the stakes, which retain it until slack water, when the fisher- 

 man takes it up and repeats from the opposite direction on the next 

 turn of the tide. 



HAUL SEINES. 



On the Columbia River, where this form of apparatus plays a 

 prominent part in the fisheries, the nets vary in length from 100 to 

 400 fathoms; the shallowest end is from 35 to 40 mesnes deep, but it 

 rapidly increases in width and is from 120 to 140 meshes deep at the 

 other wing. The "bunt," or bag. in the central part of the net is 

 about 50 fathoms long. These nets are usually hauled on the numer- 

 ous sand bars which are a very noticeable filature of the river at low 

 tide. Buildings are erected on piles on these sand flats, in which the 



