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Transactions of the Canadian Institute. 



[Vol. IX. 



the succeeding three yearSj perhaps owing to the fishing industry being in 

 these earher years much less perfectly organized than it was later, but 

 when we come to 1897 we find the pack taking a sudden leap to 850,000 

 cases as compared with 325,000 in the preceding year. In the following 

 year it again fell, having reached only 216,000 cases; it rose somewhat 

 in the next year but in 1900 it fell again to 166,045. And then came in 

 1 90 1 a run which is par excellence the "big run," the pack reaching nearly 

 a million cases, or to be exact 962,682. I may add that in this year the 

 Puget Sound canneries packed 1,086,637 cases, so that the total pack of 



Fig. I — Sockeye Pack Fraser River. 



Fraser River Sockeyes reached, in 1901, the amazing amount of 2,049,319 

 cases. Following this big year came three lean years and again, in 1905, 

 the pack rose, this time to 837,498 cases, and then followed again three 

 lean years, the pack of 1907 being the smallest since 1892. The present 

 year should again have been a big year, but the official figures have not 

 yet been compiled. I have, however, by the kindness of Commissioner 

 Babcock, been furnished wth an estimate of the pack, according to which 

 the Canadian pack probably amounts to about 600,000 cases, a good deal 

 less than in the preceding good years but still greatly in excess of that of the 

 three preceding lean years. The pack of Puget Sound canneries, however. 



