PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 957 
employed to handle the fish on shore, but the actual fishing can be 
done only by Russian subjects. 
At the present time the chief aim of the Russian authorities is to 
break the monopoly the Japanese have of the fisheries along the 
greater part of the coast. This will be an exceedingly difficult thing 
to do, owing to the proximity of the Japanese to the Siberian coast, 
the ease with which they can transport by water the necessary sup- 
plies, ete., for carrying on the fisheries, the vastly greater skill in 
carrying on this work displayed by them over their Russian com- 
etitors, and their unlimited supply of cheap labor, while the Russian 
isheries are badly hampered as a result of the few Russian subjects 
available for such work and the consequent high wage cost of same. 
Japan also has another big advantage in that she is at present almost 
the sole market for the greater part of the salmon and other fishes 
taken in Siberia. The very fact of this fish being necessary for feeding 
her people will cause Japan to battle hard to hold her present advan- 
tage. 
In order to encourage opposition to the Japanese, the Russian 
authorities in 1913 gave to Denbigh & Biritch, on a long lease, a 
fishing station on the Kamchatka River (eastern shore of Kamchatka 
peninsula), and to S. Grooshetsky & Co. one on the Bolsha River 
(western shore of Kamchatka). In order to safeguard.the fishery in 
the lease each was to build a fish hatchery with a capacity of 3,000,000 
salmon per annum in the vicinity of the station. Each was to release 
500,000 in 1914, 1,000,000 in 1915, and 3,000,000 yearly from 1916 
to the end of the lease. Owing to technical difficulties only the latter 
firm built a hatchery, and this not until 1915 or 1916. It has since 
been shut down. 
The development of the salmon and other fisheries of Siberia has 
been much hampered by the disinclination of the Russian Govern- 
ment to permit foreigners to acquire fishing concessions except on 
very short tenure. As the Russians themselves are generally un- 
skilled in fishing operations, and are compelled to do the work with 
Russian labor, which is quite scarce, they do but little with their 
concessions. American capital would doubtless be available for 
developing Siberia’s fisheries were it assured of a sufficiently long 
tenure of lease with some other minor concessions. 
APPARATUS EMPLOYED. 
In the river districts somewhat primitive fishing apparatus is 
employed. Spears, dip nets, and the other simple forms which 
seem to be common to all savage tribes depending upon the water 
for the greater part of their subsistence, are all in use by the natives 
living along the upper reaches. 
Weirs of a primitive type known as “‘zaezdka,” are also used. 
These have a lead consisting of willow poles and branches built from 
the river bank or a sand bank out into the stream. At the outer 
end is attached a net compartment with a lead, into which the fish, 
which have been following the lead in the search for an opening, 
pass. Two men in a boat are anchored close by, and as soon as 30 
or 40 salmon have passed into the compartment, it is hauled up and 
the fish emptied into the boat, after which the net is reset. 
11312°—21 17 
