260 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



the \vell-kno^^^l fish dealer of New York, to the late Col. Marshall 

 McDonald, then United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries: 



I havo just loarned of the arrival in '^liicago of 60.000 pounds of frozen salmon. 

 Thoy were caught in Petropavlovsk. Kamchatka. These fish are a new venture 

 undertaken by a commercial trading company who control that country, and these 

 salmon have been taken from a river -where ncne have been caught before, and my 

 information is that thty catch fish weighing as much as 150 pounds each. The abo\e 

 lot of fish was brought frozen to Tacoma and then shi]iped by refrigerator car to Chi- 

 cago, where they were sold to Mr. Booth, of the Booth Packing Co. , Chicago. Mr. Booth 

 has declined to pay for them because of their not being in satisfactory condition. 



Nothing further appears to have been done in this Une until in 1903, 

 when a Berlin fish merchant outfitted and sent to the Siberian coast 

 a refrigerator steamer with a capacity of 2,500 tons. The fish were 

 caught mainh' in the Amur River and were frozen immediately after 

 being brought aboard. In all, 160,000 salmon were obtained, and 

 these were in excellent condition when landed at Hamburg, Germany. 



In 1907 the Salmon Steam Fishing Co., a combined British and 

 Japanese company, chartered the steamers Zenohia and Zevhyrus. 

 These vessels were fitted with refrigerating apparatus and cold-stor- 

 age chambers and sent to the Kamchatkan Peninsula to get a cargo. 

 Both secured good cargoes. 



In 1909 two refrigerating steamers visited the coast and froze salmon 

 for the European market. One vessel was outfitted by a British 

 company and the other b}' a German company, J. Lindenberger (Inc.). 

 The latter reported that the dog salmon, the principal species frozen, 

 were large and very bright. The British steamer left England in 

 April and arrived home again late in December. 



CANNING SALMON. 



In 1900 the Kamchatka Commercial & Industrial Co. (Ltd.), was 

 organized at St. Petersburg, Russia, by A. T. Prozoraf, president of 

 the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce; P. M. Grunwalt; PI. T. M. 

 Court, and A. A. Prozoraf, secretary. A complete canning outfit was 

 purchased in the United States, and the first cannery in Siberia estab- 

 lished at Petropavlovsk, Avacha Ba}^ Kamchatka. 



The San Francisco Trade Journal, under date of December 19, 1902, 

 printed the following item relating to the operations of this cannery: 



On December 8 the Russian barkentine Bitle arrived from Petropavlovsk, Siberia, 

 with 10,136 cases canned salmon. This is the first consignment of salmon received 

 from them. 



The greater part of the pack comprised dog salmon, although they 

 were labeled "pink" salmon, the rest being reds and kings. 



In 1903 the company did not operate, the fishing season being 

 devoted to moving tbe plant to Ust-Kamchatka, at the mouth of the 

 Kamchatka River, where, after being in use altogether for two or 

 three years, it was abandoned and left all standing. 



In 1907 two canneries were established in the estuary of the Amur 

 River, near Nikolaevsk, but beyond getting out samples they were 

 never operated. 



In 1910 A. G. Denbigh, an Englishman, built a modern cannery 

 near the second site of the Kamchatkan Commercial & Industrial Co. 

 That year the cannery produced only about 10,000 cases, but each 

 year smce the equipment of the plant has been enlarged and improved 

 until in 1913 the pack amounted to 60,000 cases. Early in 1914 a 



