76 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
average 300 fathoms in length, with meshes suitable for the particular 
species sought. In Alaskan waters the nets vary greatly in length 
and depth, depending upon the places where fished. 
Drift gill netting is prosecuted chiefly in the estuaries of the 
rivers in and near the chaste) If the water is clear the nets are 
set only at night, but should the water be muddy or discolored with 
glacial silt, fishing can be carried on either night or day. Night fish- 
ing is most common in the States, while day fishing is most common 
in Alaska. When fishing in rivers, it is necessary to work in a straight 
stretch of water of fairly uniform depth and free from snags or sharp 
ledges, these being called ‘‘reaches.”’ 
In setting the net the boat puller rows slowly across the stream 
while the other man pays out the apparatus, to the first end of which 
a buoy has been attached. When about two-thirds of the gear is 
out, the boat is turned downstream at nearly right angles to her 
former course, so that the net, when set, approximates the shape of 
the letter L. The net is laid out at nearly right angles or diagonally 
to the river’s course, so that it will intercept the salmon that are 
running in, and is usually put out about an hour before high-water 
slack and taken in about an hour after the turn of the tide. In 
Alaska the fishermen usually fish on both the high and low slack. 
The nets are allowed to drift for the time specified, the fishermen 
drifting along at one end, then the net is hauled into the boat over 
a wooden roller fixed in the stern, and the fish, which have become 
illed in the meshes, are removed, stunned or killed by a blow on the 
1ead, and thrown into the bottom of the boat. 
Set gill nets are made in the same way as drift nets, in many in- 
stances being fragments of the latter, and are usually operated in the 
upper reaches of the rivers. They vary in length from 10 to 100 
fathoms, from 35 to 65 meshes in depth, and have the same sizes of 
meshes as the drift nets, the size varying, of course, with the species 
sought for. Sometimes these nets are staked, sometimes anchored, 
while occasionally only one end is tied to the shore or a stake set in 
the water. 
On the flats off the mouth of the Stikine River, in southeast Alaska, 
a combination of the drift and set method is followed. A double set 
of stakes, about 6 feet apart, are set out from the shore for a distance 
of several hundred yards. An hour or two before slack water the 
fishermen pay out the net parallel to the line of stakes and about 50 
feet from them. The tide drifts the net down until it is caught 
against the stakes, which retain it until slack water, when the fisher- 
man takes it up and repeats from the opposite direction on the next 
turn of the tide. 
HAUL SEINES. 
On the Columbia River, where this form of apparatus plays a 
prominent part in the fisheries, the nets vary in length from 100 to 
400 fathoms; the shallowest end is from 35 to 40 meshes deep, but it 
rapidly increases in width and is from 120 to 140 meshes deep at the 
other wing. The ‘‘bunt,” or bag, in the central part of the net is - 
about 50 fathoms long. These nets are usually hauled on the numer- 
ous sand bars which are a very noticeable feature of the river at low 
tide. Buildings are erected on piles on these sand flats, in which the 
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