ALASKA FISnjSRIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES, 19U. 



49 



1910 to 1,122 in 1911, with a very slight increase in the pack of pink 

 belUes. The average value of the total pack increased from about 

 $9 to $12 per barrel. 



Barrels o op Salmon Pickled in 1911, by Species. 



a Barrels holding 200 pounds of fish. 



MILD-CURING. 



At the opening of the present season the mild-curing establish- 

 ments claimed to be still holding unsold a part of the previous sea- 

 son's pack, and some of them tried to persuade the fishermen to 

 accept much lower prices for the raw product than had prevailed in 

 1910. This led to trouble in the Ketchikan section, and as a result 

 very little mild-curing was done there. The few fishermen who trolled 

 disposed of their catch to the Wrangell mild curers or to the shippers 

 of fresh king salmon. 



With the exception of a small quantity put up in Cook Inlet, 

 central Alaska, the packing of mild-cured salmon was confined to 

 southeast Alaska. While a considerable part of the pack is put up 

 at permanent stations, a fleet of power vessels and boats engaged in 

 the work, selling their product generally to the shore stations. 

 Usually king salmon alone are prepared in this manner, but this year 

 a few coho salmon were put up. 



As in previous years the principal trouble the packers experienced 

 was in making use of the white-meated king salmon. About one- 

 fourth of the average catch of king salmon is white-meated and the 

 fishermen insist that the dealers shall take these fish along with the 

 others, which they do at a considerably lower price, and a few of the 

 larger are mild-cured. Early in the season many of them, together 

 with the small red-meated fish, are shipped fresh to Puget Sound 

 ports, but after the kings begin to run in the soimd this is unprofitable. 



A red-meated female king salmon caught early in July in Gut Bay, 

 Chatham Strait, southeast Alaska, by trolling, weighed, after removal 

 of the head, viscera, fins, and backbone, 83^ pounds. Allowing the 



