148 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



the utmost difficulty in securinf^ substitute doj? feed. Fresh meat was 

 used, although this is by no means satisfactory, and deplorable num- 

 bers of caribou were slaughtered by natives and others for this 

 purpose. Cereals and bacon were made use of, and stores and trading 

 posts soon found their stocks running low. The natives killed, or 

 permitted to die of starvation, half or more than half of their dogs, 

 and many white men were compelled to adopt the same course. 

 Undoubtedly the best dogs were retained and the least valuable were 

 culled out of the teams. But the general opinion entertained by those 

 best acquainted with the natives and their needs was to the effect that 

 the great reduction in the size of their dog teams was disastrous and 

 the dog shortage was sure to hamper them in their efforts to make a 

 living during the coming winter. 



There were no reported cases of starvation or of serious suffering 

 among the natives during the winter of 1919 because- of the shortage 

 of salmon, although they might well have occurred in outlying dis- 

 tricts if help had not been given by white traders and by others. 

 At Tanana rations were issued from the military post at Fort Gibbon, 

 intended to relieve distress among the sick and aged natives of that 

 vicinity. But the winter w^as in some respects unusually favorable. 

 On the upper river heavy snows drove the caribou to the lowlands 

 near the river, where natives could hunt them without making long 

 sledge journeys with their dog teams into the mountains. Com- 

 missioner Mackenzie at Dawson said that had it not been for this 

 fortunate coincidence the Indians in that vicinity would have suf- 

 fered severely. In the Tanana-Fairbanks district moose were abun- 

 dant and were easily captured in the deep snows. And farther down 

 the river, in the Nulato-Koyulmk region, the grouse, which had been 

 scarce for a number of years, had begun to come back in their former 

 abundance. Here again had the season not been unusually favorable 

 for securing fresh meat near at hand severe suffering would have 

 been experienced. Such favorable conditions can not be expected to 

 recur should the salmon supply again fail. 



To resume, it does not admit of doubt that there was a most serious 

 scarcity of salmon last winter, nor that this was occasioned primarily 

 by an equally serious shortage in the run. By no other theory can 

 so general a failure in the I'iver fishing be explained. The lower 

 and middle sections of the river, the Ramparts and Upper Yukon, 

 the Porcupine, the Tanana, and the Koyukuk, all tell the same story. 

 Dogs were sacrificed in large numbers, which were neither useless 

 nor superfluous, and the natives were saved from serious suffering 

 only by a series of happy coincidences, which could not again be 

 expected. 



TO WHAT EXTENT WAS YUKON CANNERY RESPONSIBLE FOR 1919 



SHORTAGE? 



As the cannery of the Carlisle Packing Co. at the mouth of the 

 Yukon did not operate prior to 1917, and as neither the king, chum, 

 nor coho salmon matures in two-year cycles, it is evident that the 

 cannery could have had no influence on the size of the run which 

 presented itself at the mouth of the river in 1919 and sought access 

 to the spawning beds. The individuals which comprised this run 



