INVESTIGATIONS OF THE STEAMER ALBATROSS. 229 



REPORT OF A. B. ALEXANDER, FISHERY EXPERT. 



[Abstract.] 

 INSHORE INVESTIGATIONS. 



On May 30, 1893, the Albatross stopped at Comox, Vancouver Island, 

 "while en route for Bering Sea, for the purpose of coaling. During the 

 detention at this port the drag seine was hauled to some extent, but 

 the shores generally about here are unsuited to the use of such nets, 

 being rocky in most places. No fishes of economic importance were 

 secured, but clams were found to be abundant. The latter constitute 

 one of the principal articles of food utilized by the small tribe of 

 Indians, numbering about 100 persons, which camps in this locality 

 during the summer months for the purpose of laying in a supply of 

 salmon for winter use. These fish are either smoked or dried. For 

 smoking they are hung on lines or poles near the roof of the huts or 

 houses, where the smoke circulates freely among them; in drying, they 

 are thrown upon the rocks or sand and left until sufficiently cured to 

 permit of their being packed and shipped to the winter settlement of 

 the tribe near the town of Union, 13 miles from the coast. 



Hunting is the only winter occupation of these Indians. I saw no 

 nets of any kind at the fishing settlement, and, from such information 

 as was obtainable, I judge that all the salmon taken here are caught by 

 trolling. Although plentiful enough to supply the wants of the local 

 white and Indian population, salmon are not sufficiently abundant in this 

 locality to induce the establishment of a cannery for their preparation. 



Our next stopping-place was at Pender Island, British Columbia, 77 

 miles north of Comox:, where we anchored for the night. Several hauls 

 of a drag seine were made upon a fine beach near at hand, but without 

 success, the strong current which sweeps by the island possibly account- 

 ing for the absence of fish. 



St. Paul, Kadiak, was reached on June 7, and shortly after anchoring 

 a seining party proceeded to a beach about li miles east of the town, 

 where a considerable number of flounders, sculpins, and salmon trout 

 were captured in the net. The next morning a second visit was made 

 to the same place with the object of laying in a stock of the trout, but 

 only a single individual was secured. A few cod taken in the seine were 

 small and sickly in appearance, but others procured by hand lines from 

 the ship's deck were more thrifty-looking. We also noticed several 

 native women and boys using hand lines frorn thebeaeh and taking cod 

 of the same character as those secured in our seine, but the white inhabit- 

 ants always fish for cod and other bottom species a mile or two from 

 the islands, where the condition of the fish is excellent. 



In Humboldt Harbor, Popof Island, of the Shumagin group, 150 

 flounders and a few small salmon were seined at the mouth of a. small 



