ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUE INDUSTRIES, 1911. 53 



the resulting product, called "ukalu," is used for fox food at the fox 

 ranches and for dog food. 



There is a small local demand for this latter purpose where team dogs 

 are used. It would seem that the heads and tails from the canneries 

 could be well utilized for this purpose, but it was remarked that this 

 season in Nushagak Bay, where a dearth of salmon for this purpose 

 existed, at only one village was there any attempt made to secure a 

 supply in this manner. For this purpose, or even for food, the native 

 prefers to take fish on the spawning ground. At that time the oils 

 of the flesh have largely gone into the reproductive products, thus 

 creating a choice delicacy for food and at the same time rendering 

 the flesh more easily dried, a matter of no small moment in a climate 

 with but few rainless days. 



In southeast Alaska 80,000 pounds of humpback backs, valued at 

 $800, were prepared for food. The dry-salting of dog salmon fo-r food, 

 which at one time was quite an industry in Alaska, has almost ceased; 

 only 33,285 pounds, valued at $1,340, were so prepared this year. 



SMOKING. 



A delicious smoked product, known locally as "beleke," is pre- 

 pared at Kodiak and several other places from the backs of red and 

 coho salmon. At one cannery the experiment was made of prepar- 

 ing a mild-smoked salmon and canning it. The result was a smoked 

 fish of peculiar richness and delicacy. Whether at present it could 

 be produced in commercial quantity at a marketable price is doubt- 

 ful, but in view of the early excessive supply of fish obtained by the 

 present processes it is well to consider any means of converting some 

 portion of that supply into a product which will command an in- 

 creased price. The quantity of "beleke" put up this year amounted 

 to 14,200 pounds of red salmon backs, valued at $1,420, and 1,800 

 pounds of coho backs, valued at $180. In addition, 5,000 pounds of 

 smoked humpback salmon, valued at $100, and 3,787 pounds of dog 

 salmon, valued at $75, were prepared in southeast Alaska. 



COD FISHERY. 



GENERAL CONDITIONS. 



All but one of the firms and individuals (John H. Nelson, of Squaw 

 Harbor) operating in the district for cod exclusively have their 

 headquarters at San Francisco, Cal., or Seattle, Anacortes, or Tacoma, 

 Wash., at which places or in their immediate vicinity the cured fish 

 are received and prepared for marketing. Some of the operators 

 have shore stations located at favorable places in central Alaska on 

 the Shumagin and Sannak Islands and Unimak Island. Thence the 

 dory fishermen carry on their operations, bringing in their catch 



