63 



the iDiles. In most cases a wing is commenced beyond 

 high-water mark, and extends to low.-water mark, where a 

 pocket, abont forty feet in diameter, is placed. Then another 

 wing is built out into the stream as far as the dejotli of 

 the water will allow. All the lish which come within these 

 leaders are caught, and the mesh of the trap is so small 

 that no salmon over a foot in length can get through it. 



The Russians built impassable racks of timbers and rocks, 

 which enabled them to kill every salmon that came into 

 the stream, if they desired. These were called zapors, 

 and have been legislated out of existence, we trust. It 

 was doubtless picturesque in the early days to see an Aleut 

 standing on the crib-work of the zapor, with his spear 

 gracefully poised and ready to transfix the silvery salmon ; 

 but it was like the boy's sport with the frog, and we are 

 glad it is ended. 



The great bulk of the salmon now caught in Alaska are 

 taken in seines, varying from 600 to 1,500 feet in length, 

 and many of them more than 20 feet deep. The mesh is 

 generally about 3^ inches. The seines are set from seine- 

 boats, similar to those used for shad on the Potomac, 

 and are hauled by from twenty to thirty men. Experience 

 has shown that windlasses and similar appliances for sav- 

 ing labor are undesirable adjuncts of the fishery, at least 

 on Kadiak, where the seining is almost entirely limited to 

 salt-water. Fishing goes on at Kadiak six days in the 

 week, subject only to the presence of salmon and suita- 

 bility of the weather. Night does not stop the work, 

 except for a few hours, as it is short in this latitude. At 

 Karluk, the principal red-salmon station in Alaska, the 

 seining beach is less than half a mile long, and the seiners 

 are obliged to wait their turns to set. Several seines are 

 in the water almost constantly, one behind the other. 



Upward of 150,000 salmon have been taken here in a day. 

 A first-class cannery can use about 26,000 red-salmon daily. 



