60 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
Snake River, a tributary of Nushagak Bay, is about 30 miles in 
length, very crooked, and has its rise in a single lake close by Alekna- 
gik Lake. ‘There is an Indian village on the river just below the lake. 
Red salmon are abundant in this stream. 
Igushik River is about 50 miles in length and enters Nushagak Bay 
about 4 miles above Nichols Hills. So far as known it has its source 
in two.lakes—Amanka and Ualik. <A short distance below the first 
lake there are rapids and asmall falls. The quite large Indian village 
of Yacherk is located here, and the natives do most of their fishing in 
the rapids. Peter M. Nelson established a saltery about 10 or 12 
miles above its mouth in 1902, and operated it until he sold it to the 
Alaska Fishermen’s Packing Co., who have operated it since. There 
is a small Indian village close by the saltery. 
Nushagak Bay, in which practically all the fishing is carried on, 
is about 35 miles long and from 5 to 15 miles in width. Sand bars 
and mud flats, which are visible at low water, occupy the greater 
part of its area. 
The drift gill net is the favorite apparatus in this bay, although a 
few traps are also used. The fish begin to run very early here. 
Kings usually appear about June 5, reds about June 5 to 8, cohos 
either late in June or early in July, dog salmon about the middle of 
June, and humpbacks about the same time. The reds do not run in 
large numbers until late in June, 
‘onsiderable fishing was carried on in both the Nushagak and 
Wood Rivers until m 1908, when, as a result of a hearing held by 
the Secretary of Commerce and Labor on December 16 and 17, 1907 
it was decreed that beginning January 1, 1908, ‘‘it is hereby ordere 
that until further notice Wood River, a tributary of Nushagak Bay, 
in the district of Alaska, and the region within 500 st of the 
mouth of said Wood River be closed to all commercial fishing, and 
that all commercial fishing be prohibited in Nushagak River proper.” 
The earliest fishing by whites in the Bristol Bay section was for 
salting purposes by the trading companies, more particularly the 
Alaska Commercial Co., which had an important station at Fort 
Alexander on Nushagak Bay. Petroff, in the census report of 1880, 
refers to exports from this section of ‘‘from 800 to 1,200 barrels of 
salted salmon per annum from the Nushagak River.” 
In 1883 the schooner Neptune visited the Nushagak on a salting 
trip. The next year the Arctic Packing Co. erected a cannery here 
and made a trial pack of 400 cases. This was the first cannery to 
operate in Bering Sea. It was located close to the Moravian mission. 
This cannery eventually became a member of the Alaska Packers 
Association, and has not been operated for several years. 
The second cannery to be built was by an Astoria company, the 
Alaska Packing Co., and it was erected on the western side near the 
head of the bay and about 14 miles below the junction of the Wood 
and Nushagak Rivers. It has been operated every year to date, 
being since 1893 a member of the Alaska Packers Association. It is 
popularly known as the ‘“‘Scandinavian”’ cannery. 
In 1886 the Bristol Bay Canning Co. was organized by San Fran- 
cisco parties, and built a cannery on the western shore of Nushagak 
Bay in a bend about 2 miles below the cannery of the Alaska Packing 
Co., at a place called Dillingham. It became a member of the Alaska 
Packers Association in 1893 and was operated each year until 1907. 
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