30 ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES IN 1919. 



reasonable protective regulations were not made effective. Bishop 

 P. T. Rowe, in charge of Episcopal Church affairs in Alaska, expressed 

 the opinion that it was not so much tliat one cannery might result 

 disastrously, but that it might be the thin entering wedge of extensive 

 commercial exploitation. At the same time W. T. Loj)p, chief of the 

 Alaska division of the Bureau of Education, entertained a similar 

 view. He felt that some regulation was necessary, but that reason- 

 able cannery operations could be permitted with safety. 



The outcome of the hearing was the promulgation of regulations 

 which included prohibiting the taking of salmon for export purposes 

 from the Yukon and its tributaries above the junction of Clear lliver 

 and the Yukon, and limiting the case pack and the number of barrels 

 and tierces which might be pickled or mild cured. The pack of 

 canned salmon was limited to 30,000 cases; pickled salmon, to 1,000 

 barrels; and mild-cured salmon, to 200 tierces. 



In 1919 the total number of salmon taken from Yukon River waters 

 for export was 469,949, divided as follows: Cohos, 37,070; chums, 

 327,898; kings, 104,822; and reds, 159. The pack was as follows: 

 Cases, 57,085 ; barrels, 214 ; tierces, 47. Of the total number of salmon 

 caught, it was reported that 29,256 cohos, 194,452 chums, 65,433 

 kings, and 159 reds, an aggregate of 289,300 were taken in waters 

 outside the scope of the regulations referred to above. The catch 

 within the river was 180,649 salmon. Thus it appears that approxi- 

 mately 62 per cent of the commercial catch of salmon in Yukon River 

 waters was taken in areas beyond the jurisdiction of the Department 

 of Commerce, while only 38 per cent were caught within such areas. 



In addition to the cannery of the Carlisle Packing Co., there were 

 four salteries operated on the lower Yukon River in 1919. The 

 Delta Fish Co. was located about 2 miles above the entrance to 

 Kwiguk Slough; J. J. Stokes, about 4 miles below Aproka Pass; 

 William O'Connor, 4 miles above the entrance to Akularak Slough; 

 and the Fuller Fish Co., at the mouth of Andreafski River. Opera- 

 tions of all these concerns were upon a small scale, the total pack 

 being only 239 barrels of pickled salmon. The Delta Fish Co. was the 

 only one that salted in tanks and afterwards transferred their pack to 

 barrels for shipment. The pack of J. J. * Stokes was disposed of 

 locally, as was also the pack of William O'Connor. The Fuller Fish 

 Co. intends to operate on a larger scale next year. Part of their 

 pack this season was sent to the States and the balance sold locally. 

 John Lamont has an outfit of barrels, salt, and fishing gear ready to 

 begin operations another season. 



During the fall and winter of 1919 concerted adtion of ecclesiastical 

 inception was undertaken to end commercial fishing for salmon in 

 Yukon River waters, it being alleged that a continuance of such ac- 

 tivities meant the destruction of the salmon runs, without which the 

 natives would be unable to survive as a self-supporting people. Un- 

 doubtedly the salmon of the Yukon are indispensable to the ordinary 

 development of the country and economical maintenance of human 

 life therein. Various industries of interior Alaska, such as mining 

 and trapping, are more or less directly or indirectly dependent upon 

 salmon. Fishing is not carried on by the resident whites to an extent 

 that would constitute an industry. The natives, however, spend part 

 of their summers in catching salmon and drying them for \vinter food 

 for themselves and their dogs. Some of them prepare annually quan- 



