62 



attacked by seals and sea-lions. Before they have fairly 

 entered the rivers huge nets are hauling them to the shore 

 almost every minnte of the day, during six days in a v^eek. 

 When they return to their si3awning-grounds, bears are 

 vv^aiting to snatch them from the water and devour them 

 alive. The salmon, it api^ears, would have been better off 

 had it never been born in fresh-water, where its dangers 

 are cumulative and deadly. 



The methods of taking salmon are many and various, as 

 might be expected from the extent of the territory and the 

 variety of its fishing population. Arrows and spears are 

 still employed by natives, and trc^lling-hooks are success- 

 fully used in certain bays ; but all these partake more or 

 less of the character of angling refinements. The dip-net, 

 seine, and gill-net are universally applied ; the latter even 

 in winter-fishing, under the ice. Baskets and traps of 

 several kinds are very useful in river-fisheries, x)articularly 

 in winter. 



Dr. Ball has given a full descrijotion and figures of traps 

 constructed by Indian tribes of the Yukon and the adjacent 

 region ; these will be found in the Report of the De]3art:- 

 ment of Agriculture for 1870. 



Fish-traps of modern type are freely and, it is said, 

 injuriously, used in some parts of Alaska by wdiite fisher- 

 men, the injury charged being that of preventing the 

 ascent of the spawning salmon. In 1889, at Ice Bay, a 

 trap was reported which was three-fourths of a mile long, 

 and spanned the river from bank to bank, making it im- 

 possible for a fish to pass up-stream. It is said that many 

 of the other traps, of which there were more than fifty in 

 operation in the territory in 1889, are so arranged as to 

 prevent the ascent of the salmon in the rivers. According 

 to our information, these traj)s are built in places that 

 can be fenced across by driving piles about six feet apart, 

 and stretching wire screen, which is securely fastened to 



