COMMEKCIAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1905. 39 



these vessels are employed in the salmon industry. In number gill 

 nets lead the other forms of apparatus, but are not so effective as the 

 traps. 



In variety of products secured, Southeast Alaska leads all the other 

 divisions. This is largely owing to its greater accessibility and to the 

 fact that its fisheries have been worked for a much longer period than 

 the others. The halibut, herring, and trout fisheries are confined 

 entirely to this section. The cod fishery proper is confined to Central 

 Alaska, only a few thousand pounds being secured incidentally in 

 Southeast Alaska. Western Alaska leads in the value of salmon 

 canned. The only products given for Arctic Alaska are walrus skins, 

 whalebone, walrus ivory, and a whale's head and skull, the latter 

 being a natural-history specimen. Owing to the inaccessibility of 

 the greater part of Western and Arctic Alaska, practically nothing is 

 done during the winter and early spring months, but as soon as the ice 

 breaks up in the spring the trading vessels make their rounds of the 

 native villages and camps and collect the skins and furs which the 

 natives have taken during the winter and ship these to Pacific coast 

 ports. On account of this method of handling the business, the fiscal 

 year is the better way of showing the year's catch in this section, as 

 one whole season thus appears, and not parts of two seasons, which 

 would be the case were the calendar year shown. It was found an 

 impossibility to secure anything like accurate data as to the persons 

 employed or the investment in the business of hunting aquatic animals, 

 as it is prosecuted in conjunction with that for land animals, such as 

 bear, marten, mink, lynx, etc., and seems to be general among the 

 natives. Neither has anything been shown of the fishermen and 

 investment in the Arc tic region, owing to the impossibility of securing 

 even approximate data on such matters. The natives keep no rec- 

 ords, and besides are in many instances migratory in their habits, thus 

 making it an impossibility to keep track of them. 



The total quantity of products secured amounted to 117,247,398 

 pounds, valued at $7, 711, 981. As it was found necessary to show 

 in full the prepared products, the figures given represent dressed 

 and cured weights, and not that of the products as taken from the 

 water. There is a tremendous wastage in the Alaska fisheries, 

 especially in that for salmon, fully one-third of the round weight of 

 the latter fish being thrown away in the process of dressing and 

 packing. Had the round weight for all species been shown in the 

 table the total would have been about 155,000,000 pounds. The 

 salmon and herring fisheries of Alaska are carried on in a somewhat 

 different manner from that followed in other parts of the country. 

 Owing to the lack of what might be called "resident fishermen" in 

 the district, the canneries and guano factory have to do their own 

 fishing, and in order to accomplish this import the necessary fisher- 

 men from the Pacific coast states each season. These men are fur- 



