COMMEKCIAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN" 1905. 



27 



one on a stream entering Freshwater Lake Bay, Chatham Strait. 

 These likewise closed when the company failed. 



In 1901 the Alaska Packers' Association erected a hatchery on 

 Heckman Lake, the third of a series of lakes on Naha Stream, and 

 about 8 miles from Loring, where the association has a cannery. The 

 association has expended a great deal of money on this hatchery and 

 has made it the largest and most expensive in the world. At present 

 it has a capacity of 110,000,000 eggs, but it has never been possible 

 to secure enough to fill it. 



The Union Packing Company, at Kell Bay, on Kuiu Island, and 

 Mr. F. C. Barnes, at Lake Bay, on Prince of Wales Island, in 1902 

 built and operated small hatcheries, but with very indifferent suc- 

 cess, and both abandoned the attempt after one season's work. 



In 1905 the United States Bureau of Fisheries took up the work 

 of hatching in Alaska, and began the erection of a hatchery on 

 McDonald Lake, which empties through a short stream into Yes Bay, 

 on Cleveland Peninsula. As the hatchery proper was not far enough 

 complete to operate when the time for stripping came, in September, 

 the eggs secured were placed in the flume built to bring the water to 

 the hatchery. 



Five hatcheries were in operation in 1905-6, and the value of these, 

 together with the Hetta hatchery, which is in condition to operate 

 at any time, is about S3 15,000. 



The table below shows the hatcheries winch operated successfully 

 from 1892 or at least one season, and gives the number of eggs secured 

 and the number of fry liberated each season. This represents almost 

 wholly redfish, but a few million cohoes having been hatched. The 

 periods represented are fiscal years, because the spawning season, 

 the winter months, covers parts of two calendar years. 



o A hard freeze killed most of the eggs. 

 b None stripped, 

 c Eggs all frozen. 



<* As the take of eggs for 1905-6 had not been hatched out when this report was prepared, the number 

 of fry had to be estimated. 

 « The number of eggs taken in each season at this hatchery has been estimated. 



