ALASKA FISHERY AND FUR-SEAL INDUSTRIES, 1920. 143 
mous quantities of drift, which clogged the nets and rendered them 
inefficient. Also, during July the weather was unusually stormy, in- 
terfering with the fishing and endangering both fishing gear and the 
lives of the fishermen exposed on the flats beyond the river’s mouth. 
From the cannery standpoint, the season was a failure, redeemed from 
actual loss—if such indeed was the case—by the extremely high price 
quoted this year for king salmon. Yet the cannery pack of 28,758 
cases fell short only 1,242 cases of the maximum number of salmon 
which had been designated by the Secretary of Commerce as safely 
to be spared for commercial purposes from the Yukon River run. 
No fish intended for export from Alaska were salted on the Yukon 
River in 1920. 
SUPPLY OF DRIED SALMON PREPARED ON YUKON RIVER IN 1920. 
On the voyage down the Yukon from Lower Lebarge to the delta, 
following close behind the running ice, May 24 to June 13, few indi- 
cations could be observed of preparation for the fishing season. Here 
and there a white fisherman was engaged in constructing his fish 
wheel in time for the short king salmon run, but the native fish camps 
were unoccupied. Later it was evident that in comparatively few 
instances did the natives have wheels in the water in time to obtain 
any considerable number of king salmon. 
On the lower river, below Holy Cross or Paimiut, the natives be- 
long to the Innuit stock, and fish much less extensively with wheels 
than do the Indians of the upper river. They employ for the most 
part short lengths of homemade gill nets, which they set in eddies 
behind projecting points of the shore. As favorable localities are 
found almost exclusively along the high right (north) bank of the 
lower river, the fishing villages are confined to that side. 
Above Holy Cross the use of nets becomes less and less an im- 
portant factor, and wheels are relied on almost exclusively for the 
capture of salmon. Rarely was the primitive fish trap or basket or 
the dip net seen in use. The small ish wheels, which seem to have 
been introduced on the Tanana River in 1904, have been generally 
adopted on the upper river by whites and natives alike. They cost 
about $50 each, in addition to the labor of building them, and are 
wonderfully effective when skillfully placed. 
In the section of the river between Holy Cross and Rampart little 
dependence is placed by the natives on the king salmon. There is 
an early short run, and the natives are traditionally dilatory in mak- 
ing preparations. By the time their wheels are in the water the 
king salmon run is largely over. It is also true that the king salmon 
are more difficult to preserve, being larger in size and richer in oil. 
Those that are put up by the natives are kept largely for their own 
consumption and for this purpose are most highly prized. Taking 
the river as a whole, a distinct hardship is imposed on whites and 
natives alike when the king salmon run is below normal. 
Unquestionably, however, the chum furnishes by far the larger 
share of the dried salmon. Along some stretches of the river almost 
complete dependence is placed on this species, locally known as the 
dog salmon and the “silvers.” The higher grade of chums, known as 
“ silvers,’ form the staple dog food throughout the Yukon country. 
