PACIFIC COD FISHERIES. 15 
abundant until the latter part of June, when the fishermen generally 
move on to Baird Bank. 
Probably the finest cod secured on any of the Alaska banks are 
taken on Slime Bank. 
Baird Bank—Baird Bank, so named by Capt. Tanner of the 
Albatross in honor of Prof. Spencer F. Baird, the first United States 
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, was then generally known to 
the fishermen, and is yet to a few of them, as the Port Moller bank 
or ground. As described and charted by the Albatross, it commences 
a few miles east of Amak Island and extends northeastward off the 
northern side of the Alaska Peninsula to the vicinity of Cape 
Chichagof, at the mouth of the Ugaguk River, a distance of about 
230 miles. It has an average width of about 40 miles and an extreme 
width of 58 miles, its total area being estimated at about 9,200 square 
miles, making it the largest known bank in Alaska, and some 800 
miles more than that of Georges Bank, in the North Atlantic Ocean. 
The Albatross investigations indicated, however, a strong proba- 
bility that the Kululak ground and the region off Cape Pierce are 
really extensions of this bank, the investigations not having been 
carried to a definite conclusion with respect to this matter. Outside 
of Bristol] Bay the observations were not carried beyond the limits 
of the bank as defined by the Albatross, and the entire width of its 
western portion still remains to be determined. It is also not im- 
possible, according to Capt. Tanner, that some connection may be 
found to exist between Baird and Slime Banks to the north of Amak 
Island. <A line of stations from Cape Newenham to the Northwest 
Cape of Unimak Island, however, showed good fishing only in the 
vicinity of land. 
Like Slime Bank, but few harbors are to be found along the shores 
adjacent to Baird Bank. Vessels occasionally take refuge in Port 
Moller, Herendeen Bay, and Port Heiden, but usually the vessels 
ride out the storms or draw in close to the peninsula shore during 
southeast winds. 
Kululak Bay—Kululak Bay occupies a large part of the region 
included between Cape Constantine and Cape Newenham and con- 
tains Hagemeister Island and the Walrus Group. Within this area 
the Albatross investigators found cod in isolated spots, scarcely en- 
titled to the name of banks. Extensive shoals occur off Hagemeister 
and the Walrus Islands, 6 fathoms being found about 15 miles to 
the southward of the latter. The principal fishing grounds are out- 
side of these shoals as well as to the eastward and westward of them, 
in depths of 12 to 25 fathoms, the bottom consisting generally of 
sand, with some mud and gravel, and the fauna being essentially the 
same as on Baird and Shine Banks. 
