PACIFIC COAST FISHERIES. 



249 



Scarcely any attention is given to the refuee at the salmon canneries- 

 On the Colnmbia Eiver this waste yearly averages over 7,000,000 

 pounds, or 3,500 tons, nearly all of which is emptied into the river. 

 The only efforts to save and utilize this valuable waste product are at 

 Astoria, and there but a small part of the refuse is collected, as will be 

 seen by the folio wiug statement of the oil and fertilizer prepared from 

 salmon waste at a small factorv: 



Summary of the salmon industry. — From 186G, the year in which sal- 

 mon canning began on the Columbia River, to 1893, inclusive, the gross 

 weight of the salmon utilized for canning was over 058,000,000 pounds, 

 and the value of the pack was over $59,000,00 0. The annual results 

 of this industry are shown in the following table : 



In addition to the salmon used for canning, very large quantities 

 have been salted, consumed fresh locally, or shipi)ed fresh to other 

 parts of the country. The fish thus utilized have aggregated about 

 192,000,000 pounds, giving 850,000,000 pounds as the total salmon out- 

 put of the Columbia Eiver since 1866, the value of which, as sold fi'esh, 

 canned, or salted, was $66,000,000. As a matter of interest, it may be 

 stated that if the total salmon catch of the Columbia River could be 

 loaded into railroad cars, 42,500 ordinary freight cars would be required 

 to contain the fish, which would make a solid train over 280 miles long. 



Exhortations of canned salmon from Astoria. — Queries are often made 

 as to where the enormous quantities of salmon prepared in the lower 

 Columbia River and elsewhere on the Pacific Coast are sold. In the 

 early days of the canning industry, and for several years after, nearly 



