294 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
entitles it to mention is the offshore cod fishery carried on from Ana- 
cortes, in this county. During 1892 direct rail communication was 
established between Seattle and this county, with the water terminal 
at Anacortes. This town was one of many communities that the open- 
ing of the railroad brought into existence. Up to the date of the visit 
of the agent of the Fish Commission no attention had been given to 
the fisheries, with the exception of the cod fishery noted. 
In 1891 Capt. J. A. Matteson, of Provincetown, Mass., brought to 
Anacortes the schooner Lizzie Colby, which had for a number of years 
been engaged in the Grand Banks cod fishery out of Provincetown. 
On the arrival of the vessel she was at once sent to the fishing banks 
in Bering Sea. Although the season was late when fishing began and 
the operations were continued only twenty days, 85,000 pounds of cod- 
fish were taken and brought to Anacortes. On March 17, 1892, this 
pioneer vessel in the cod fishery of Washington sailed from Anacortes 
on her second trip to Bristol Bay, Alaska, returning August 30 with 
364,000 pounds of codfish, which were caught in three months’ fishing. 
On the return of the vessel the cargo was stored under pickle in tanks 
until needed. As occasion requires, the fish are dried on outdoor 
flakes, and prepared for market as boneless codfish. The fish are sold 
in Seattle, Portland, and other cities of the west coast, and one car load 
was Sent to Boston, Mass. 
WHATCOM COUNTY. 
This is the most northern county of the Pacific Coast of the United 
States. It lies at the southern entrance to the Gulf of Georgia and 
just northeast of the Strait of Fuca, and is of considerable importance 
in connection with the fisheries. Salmon on their way to the Fraser 
River pass the shores of this county, off which they are usually found 
about a month earlier than they are in the Fraser. The fisheries are 
centered at Point Roberts, a military reservation. Numerous varieties 
of fish are here found, but only salmon at the present time have any 
commercial importance. Previous to the establishment of a salmon 
cannery at Point Roberts in 1891, all the fishing of the county was 
confined to the period of the early run of salmon on their way to the 
Fraser. At that time the catch, of which no reliable report could be 
procured, was used locally, and sold to the canneries over the boundary 
line, on the Fraser River, and was much less than in 1891 and 1892. 
During 1892 over three-fourths of the catch was taken by the 85 
white men using purse seines and pound nets, and less than one-fourth 
by 100 Indian fishermen employing reef nets and gill nets. The reef 
net, of which a diagram and description were given in the previous 
report on the fisheries of this coast, is gradually going out of use, only 
10 being used in 1892, against 20 in 1891. The proportional quantities 
of salmon taken with the different kinds of apparatus are as follows: 
Pound nets, two-tenths; purse seines, six-tenths; gill nets, one-tenth; 
reef nets, one-tenth. Silver salmon and skowitz or dog salmon are 
taken by purse seines and gill nets; sockeye or blueback salmon are 
