PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 69 
UGASHIK RIVER. 
This river has its rise in a chain of two lakes, but with the excep- 
tion of that portion below the upper cannery, about 25 miles, it is 
very little known to the whites. The river is very tortuous in its 
course. It has two known tributaries—King Salmon River, which 
enters through the left bank about 17 miles from the bar at the mouth, 
and Dog Salmon River, which enters through the left. bank about 37 
miles from the bar. From Smoky Point to the capes at the mouth 
the river widens very greatly, being about 20 miles across at the 
mouth. Shoals are numerous, but there is a channel with about 9 
feet at low water. 
This river is essentially a red salmon stream, but the other species 
are also taken in small numbers, although the humpback is very 
scarce. This river is noted for the great falling off in the run of red 
salmon of recent years, 769,002 red salmon being taken in 1901, 
1,640,973 in 1902, 1,703,536 in 1903, 564,492 in 1904, 432,779 in 1905, 
and 152,140 in 1906. Since 1906 the run has not improved. Gill 
nets are used here. 
C. A. Johnson was the first man to operate commercially on this 
river, having erected a saltery on the left bank, about 23 miles above 
Smoky Point, in 1889, and operated it continuously from 1889 to 
1898, both inclusive. This saltery was merged in the cannery of the 
Bering Sea Packing Co. In 1894 Mr. Johnson established and oper- 
ated another saltery on the right bank of the river, about 12 miles 
from the bar, which he sold in 1899 to the Alaska Packers Associa- 
tion, who absorbed it in their cannery plant. 
The Bering Sea Packing Co., a branch of the Alaska Improvement 
Association, in 1890 built the first cannery on the river, this being 
located on the left bank near the first Johnson saltery. A small pack 
was first made in 1891. The plant was closed in 1892 and 1893, 
and as the location had proven far from suitable, it was, in 1894, 
moved to a point on the left bank, about 15 miles above Smoky 
Point, where it was operated until 1896. The next year it was sold 
to the Alaska Packers Association. The machinery and equipment 
were utilized in the latter company’s cannery, and the old location 
abandoned. 
In 1893 Charles Nelson established a saltery on the left bank of 
the Ugashik, immediately above the last site of the Bering Sea Pack- 
ing Co. It was operated in 1893 and 1894, and then sold to the 
Alaska Packers Association, who closed it down. 
In 1893 the Alaska Packers Association also built a saltery on the 
left bank of the river about a mile below the last site of the Bering 
Sea Packing Co. It was operated each year until 1895, when it was 
merged into the association’s cannery, 
6111°—17——27 
