32 ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES IN 1918. 
place to feed on salmon. As the ice recedes these places will increase in size, more 
water will flow through them, and eventually the river may widen its channel until 
no canyon remains. Even during the present year there was a marked change over 
the conditions existing in 1917. At least one-third of the river was flowing through 
the bear holes. 
Within the last four years the Copper River as a salmon stream has attracted unusual 
interest. It has emerged from a position of more or less obscurity into a place of com- 
manding prominence. This change may be due (1) to the superior quality of the 
Copper River salmon, and (2) to the apparent large escapement of salmon above the 
then field of operations. Fishing in the delta district, as it was carried on during 1914 
and several years preceding, was limited to the activities of but one cannery, that of 
the Northwestern Fisheries Co., whose plant was and still is located at Orca. 
Commercial fishery enterprises above the delta were confined to the pickling and mild 
curing of salmon at Abercrombie by L. L. Mikkelson, who for a few seasons had oper- 
ated a saltery there, taking salmon by dip-net and gill-net fishing along the west bank 
of the river in Abercrombie Canyon. 
In 1914 the Copper River district was visited by salmon packers who were interested 
elsewhere in the Alaskan fisheries or those of the Pacific coast, and special attention 
was given by some of them to the possibilities of operating a cannery in the vicinit 
of Miles Lake or Abercrombie Canyon. It was evident from the operations of Mikkel- 
son that a considerable number of salmon were escaping the nets at the delta and that 
profitable fishing could be had in the lake and canyon, and with comparatively little 
and inexpensive gear and equipment. In the fall of 1914 the Copper River Packing ° 
Co. built a cannery at Abercrombie just north of the Mikkelson saltery, but did not 
operate it until the following season. In the spring of 1915 the Canoe Pass Packing 
Co. also entered the Copper River field and established a small cannery adjacent to the 
ocean dock at Cordova. The former company operated only at the up-river fields, 
while the operations of the latter company were limited to gill netting in the waters of 
the delta in competition with the Northwestern Fisheries Co. Both new companies 
made satisfactory packs, even surpassing their own expectations. The apparent ease 
with which this was done was a sufficient inducement for other interests to enter the 
field in 1916. Chief of these was the Carlisle Packing Co., which ventured out on a 
more pretentious scale than any of the older concerns had done, or even those of con- 
temporaneous origin. 
This sudden and rapid expansion of operations in the Copper River in 1916 and 
1917 was regarded as unjustified and out of all proportion to the size of the run of 
salmon in that stream. It was further regarded that if these operations continued | 
to expand, or even remained at the magnitude then attained, the fate of the Copper 
River salmon fishery would be held in the balance. In the face of such a situation 
failure to provide simple and reasonable protection to the salmon at this critical 
time would be followed by destruction of the run, if any significance is to be attached 
to the large and increasing amount of gear required to maintain a supply of salmon 
sufficient for the profitable operation of the canneries. The establishment of six 
canneries in the district to draw upon the run of salmon in the Copper River resulted 
in intensified fishing, a fact clearly indicated by a comparison of the amount of gear 
and the catch made by the six companies then in the field with that of the one can- 
nery and one saltery which were in operation in 1914 and prior thereto. 
As illustrative of the amazing development of activities in this field, some statistics 
of the amount of gear employed and the catch of salmon made in certain years may 
be cited. In 1914 the Northwestern Fisheries Co. operated approximately 9,500 
fathoms of gill nets in the delta district, while Mikkelson used 500 fathoms of gill 
nets and a few dip nets at the up-river fields, thus making a total of 10,000 fathoms 
of nets for the entire field. The catch in that year was approximately 300,000 salmon, 
or an average of 30 fish per fathom of gear. In 1916 four companies fished in the waters 
of the delta, using approximately 35,000 fathoms of gill nets, and taking 367,000 
salmon, or an average of a fraction more than 10 fish per fathom of gear. During the 
same season approximately 300,000 salmon were taken in Miles Lake with 5,000 
fathoms of gill nets, or an average of 60 salmon per fathom of gear. A catch of ap- 
proximately 150,000 salmon was made in Abercrombie Canyon by means of 50 dip 
nets, or an average of 3,000 fish per net. In 1917 seven companies operated in the 
Copper River fields. Six of these companies used approximately 52,000 fathoms 
of gill nets in the delta district and took 521,000 salmon, an average of about 10 salmon 
per fathom of gear. There were also operated in the same season 5,000 fathoms of 
gill nets in Miles Lake, whereby approximately 265,000 salmon were taken, an average 
of 53 fish per fathom of gear. A total of 70 dip nets operated in the canyon took 
approximately 90,000 fish, or an average of 1,285 per net. 
From 1914 to 1917 there was an increase in the delta district of about 450 per cent 
in the amount of gear used, while the increase in the catch of salmon was only about 
