16 ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES IN 1918. 
quence requires the use of a strong, comfortable vessel with a cruisin 
radius of several hundred miles. Warden Baker has also directe 
attention to the need of a strong, seaworthy launch, about 32 or 35 
feet long, with a medium heavy-duty engine of 10 horsepower or 
more. This launch should not draw more than 24 feet of water, as 
it is needed primarily for the patrol maintained in connection with 
ae Nushagak and Wood Rivers, which are closed to commercial 
fishing. 
In Coinsetieit with the matter of patrol boats, it is of interest to 
quote the following from a recent general report by Assistant Agent 
Ball: 
The great need of the service is boats and men in sufficient number to permit the 
placing of one at each important fishing district. As the patrol is increased, the size 
of the district given to each man will be reduced until it reaches a point where very 
good control of fishing activities can be maintained. To give anything like adequate 
protection to the fisheries of the Copper River and the enforcement of the law in that 
district, the Bureau should have three boats of the size and type of the one it now has 
on the Yukon. Such boats would have the requisite speed and also be sufficiently 
seaworthy, as it would never be necessary to take them into open waters. While 
storms may occur occasionally it is always possible for small boats to find shelter in 
any one of the many sloughs and outlets of the river. 
Proper patrol and protection of the Cook Inlet district would require three similar 
boats for use north of Ninilchik, where the water is very muddy and the shores are 
strewn with numerous bowlders. The advantage in having shallow draft boats in 
these waters would be that they could enter practically any of the streams flowing 
into the inlet in event of a storm, whereas boats drawing 3 or 4 feet of water could find 
no safe anchorage north of Kachemak Bay except in the Kasilof and Kenai Rivers. 
Full-powered seagoing launches would be required for the lower inlet, Prince William 
Sound, Kodiak, and all other localities in the central district as in them the waters 
are deep, more exposed, and visited by frequent wind storms. With the constantly 
increasing development of the fisheries, this need becomes more urgent, for with the 
demand for fish becoming greater and commerical competition becoming keener there 
yet also ai a tendency to disregard the laws until permanent injury to the fisheries 
will result. 
VIOLATIONS OF LAWS AND REGULATIONS. 
On December 9, 1918, the Supreme Court of the United States de- 
livered an opinion confirming the opinion of the circuit court of appeals 
for the ninth circuit enjoining the Alaska Pacific Fisheries from main- 
taining, and compelling it to remove, a fish trap erected by it in 
Annette Island waters, Alaska. 
A case of interest to packers in general was brought on May 23, 
1918, by the United States attorney at Valdez against the Pioneer 
Packing Co. for the nonpayment of a license tax, an information being 
filed in the district court at Valdez alleging that the Pioneer Packing 
Co. did prosecute unlawfully the business of manufacturing without 
first having obtained a license from the clerk of the district court. 
Counsel for the defendant interposed a demurrer, which was overruled 
by Judge Fred M. Brown on May 28, 1918. At the October, 1918, 
term of the district court the case was again taken up, when the 
defendant refused to plead further. On October 16 a fine of $500 
was imposed. The company has one year from that date in which to 
appeal. Under the law a license tax of $500 was assessed against the 
Pioneer Packing Co. for the operation of a clam cannery at Cordova, 
Alaska, as a manufactory doing a certain volume of business. The 
law further provides that if the tax is not paid when due, the company 
upon conviction shall pay a fine equal to the amount of the tax, 
