AIASKA FISHERY AT^D FUR-SEAL, INDUSTRIES, 1920. 139 



camp on the shol-e just outside the mouth of the river, but the drying 

 frames were scantily supplied with salmon when the}'^ were seen in 

 the last week of July. Between the mouth of the pass and old Fort 

 Hamilton no fishing stations were occupied, and the nets operated by 

 the white trader at old Fort Hamilton were having no success. The 

 general belief that Apoon Pass is of little importance as a fishway 

 seemed wholly justified by observations. It has probably no greater 

 importance than have some of the subsidiary channels through the 

 delta. 



The lower Kwikpak and the Kawanak Passes, which together con- 

 stitute the middle mouth, are the least known of the three main 

 divisions of the river. Xo steamers traverse them and very few 

 natives have their summer fishing camps along their banks. The 

 Kawanak is a stream of large size and fair depth of water and the 

 lower Kwikpak, although choked with sandbars, carries a consider- 

 able current. 



This middle mouth was visited July 5 to 7, at a time when the 

 Carlisle Packing Co., on request, was testing the run of salmon by 

 setting nets in the lower Kawanak Channel. Two nets were set along 

 the left bank and two otliors were set offshore along the edge of a 

 bank. This test was made durincr a slack period in the run in the 

 south mouth, when the king salmon especially were running in 

 greatly reduced numbers and the chums were not coming in full 

 force. During 14 hours" fishing in the Kawanak Channel the four 

 nets took 8 kmg salmon and 67 chums. In a second test of equal 

 length the following day the showing Avas even less favorable. 



One native fishing camp, which obviously has been occupied for 

 many years, is located on the upper point of the long island which 

 separates the Kawanak and Kwipak channels, immediately below 

 their first confluence near the mouth. Four families were encamped 

 at this place, and reported a favorable catch of king salmon during 

 the preceding ^,wo weeks. The run had now slackened, they said, and 

 the chums were just beginning to appear. They had found the 

 season thus far very much better than the preceding year, when they 

 had fished in the same locality. During the season of 1919 they had 

 been unable to secure many more salmon than they had needed for 

 their summer's use. At the time the camp was visited they had caught 

 enough king salmon to fill one rack and two smokehouses, and had 

 made use of two short gill nets of their own make set in an eddy along 

 the bank of the island. The nets were not more than 25 feet long. 

 Later, when a fresh run had entered the south mouth, word was re- 

 ceived that the native fishermen in the middle mouth were again 

 making good catches. It seemed, therefore, that the runs in the two 

 m.ouths were well synchronized, the fluctuations during different 

 seasons and between different days of the same season, following 

 each other closely. This was well shown in a test made in the middle 

 mouth, on request, during the earlier part of the season, when king 

 salmon were running abundantly in the south mouth. This test was 

 made on June 2.5 and 26, and resulted in a satisfactory catch of king 

 salmon, with very few chums. 



In view of the tests here indicated and observations at the fishing 

 camp, it can not be said that the middle month lacks importance as a 

 route for salmon. Yet it is considered to be A'ery far indeed behind 

 the south mouth in this respect. It is rjoubtful whether it equals in 



