60 ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES IN 1915. 
the stipes, are frequently many feet in length and float upon the surface of the water 
or at a comparatively slight depth. Thus their relative position to the surface remains 
the same at all stages of the tide. But few of these are entirely stranded at low 
tide so that eggs deposited on them are subject for the most part to disturbance only 
from those enemies operating in the water. Frequently these large fronds are covered 
on the upper side to a thickness of one-half inch with the eggs, and it is such as these 
that the natives select for drying. 
When the herring eggs are first deposited they are surrounded by a sticky, gelatinous 
coating that causes them to adhere to any object they touch, and the natives 
have found that by placing the green branches of hemlock on the beach at low tide, 
where they will be on the spawning grounds when the tide comes in, the eggs will 
become attached to them, thus making it more easy to collect and dry the eggs, as they 
dry more readily on hemlock than on the seaweed. 
The only preparation the eggs undergo for preservation is drying, which is accom- 
plished by hanging the limbs and twigs in trees or on ropes or wires in the sun and 
wind, and the fronds either by hanging over wires or strings or by laying them on 
canvas on the ground. A small quantity of eggs on the small mosslike alge is some- 
times collected, but owing to the matting down of the mass it dries but slowly and 
much difficulty is experienced in preserving the eggs. They quickly spoil unless 
dried rapidly. Also, when on this alge they are not so desirable for food. 
Practically the entire native population of Klawak—about 300—collected eggs at 
Craig in 1914, and in addition there were natives from Shakan, Hydaburg, Kake, 
Killisnoo, and many other places. A total of over 500 natives participated in the work 
at Fish Egg Island and vicinity. Many of the natives who came in their own power 
boats lived aboard them, but the entire west shore of the island was lined with the 
camps of those who had come in canoes or by other means. At the north end of the 
island proper is a small village that is occupied only for a short time each year, during 
the period for taking and drying eggs. Most of the natives who had come in canoes 
were laden down with their spoils when ready to depart, and large quantities of both 
fresh and dried eggs were shipped on the three weekly trips of the mail boat Uncle Dan, 
plying between Wrangell and the west coast region of Prince of Wales Island. The 
shipments were consigned to Shakan, Hydaburg, Sulzer, Waterfall, Wrangell, and 
other points. Many of those who lived at Klawak carried fresh eggs direct to their 
homes, where they dried them. Those who had come from a distance in power boats 
filled every conceivable bit of space with the fresh and dried eggs, and frequently towed 
canoes, also loaded with the food. 
A box filled with fresh eggs on seaweed or hemlock, weighing about 50 pounds, sells 
for about $2. About half the weight is of the vegetation. All the eggs from a single 
herring would be but a handful, and when dried but a tablespoonful. The natives who 
are fortunate enough to be able to take eggs exert every effort to obtain all they can 
possibly handle, so that they may have plenty to sell and trade to other natives not so 
fortunate. Thusitis at once apparent that an incredible number of eggs are sacrificed. 
At Sitka the conditions were studied in the same manner and found to be quite 
similar to those at Craig, except that the spawning grounds are in small isolated coves 
in the many islands, rocks, and reefs of the region; and as the beaches are very steep, a 
smaller percentage of the eggs was exposed than at Craig and there was no large area 
covered by spawn, as at Craig. The period of spawning in 1914 in the vicinity of 
Sitka lasted almost three weeks. A large portion of the native population of Hoonah, 
Killisnoo, Kake, and other villages, was busily engaged there in collecting the eggs and 
shipping or drying them. 
The eggs are shipped in boxes of the size indicated above, or in burlap sacks which 
hold about the same quantity. On three weekly trips of the steamer Georgia, leaving 
