60 THE FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1906. 



the natives during the summer and early fall, when the fish enters 

 the streams and bays for the purpose of spawning; the catch is 

 stowed away in storehouses until needed during the w-inter months. 

 Not only must the native prepare winter food for himself and family, 

 but also for liis dogs, of which each family usually has three or four, 

 and which are the sole dependence of the native for drawing his sled 

 in A\4nter when the ground is covered with snow. At one place on the 

 Ugaguk River last summer (in July) two natives had on their curing 

 racks over 8,000 salmon, the greater part of which were intended as 

 dog food, and these men expected to put up from 4,000 to 6,000 more 

 before the salmon season ended. They had a large kennel of dogs, 

 part of which were tor hire in the season, hence the large number of 

 fish cured, but very few families put up less than 4,000 to 5,000 

 salmon each season for their own household use and for their dogs. 

 In 1 880 Mr, Ivan Petroff , special agent of the Tenth Census, estimated 

 that the natives of Southeast and Central Alaska, the Aleutian chain, 

 and the Bristol Bay region, alone consumed yearly 44,891,000 pounds 

 of fish. This takes no account of the enormous quantities ot fish 

 consumed each year in the Kuskok\vim River, Yukon River, and 

 Arctic districts. 



In all sections of Alaska other aquatic products besides fish are 

 used — hair and fur seals, w^aLrus, grampus, beluga, whales, porpoises, 

 land and sea otters, beaver, various crustaceans and mollusks, and 

 algae. It is impossible, however, to secure even approximate figures 

 for these products, owing to the fact that most of them are consumed 

 by the fishermen or hunters, and the remainder are used for barter 

 with the interior tribes. None of these items, therefore, appear in the 

 statistical tables in this report. 



Last April there was, according to the Indians and a few white men 

 who stay there the year around, a large run of a certain species of fish 

 in the Ugashik River, but to get a definite description of the fish 

 was found impossible. All statements agreed, however, that it was 

 neither the eulachon nor the smelt, both of which frequent the river. 

 It is only an occasional visitor, the Indians claim, and has not been 

 here for some years. Its presence is considered by them an indi- 

 cation of a big run of salmon later on, but in tliis instance, at least, 

 the prophecy proved false. 



Following is a summary of the present knowledge of the leading 

 fishery products which go to form a considerable part of the food of 

 the natives, but do not enter, or, at the most, enter very slightly, 

 into the commercial fisheries of Alaska : 



AtJca mackerel (Pleurogrammus monopterygius) . — This species, which 

 is also known locally as kelp-fish and yellow or striped fish, is found 

 about the whole of the Aleutian chain and among the Shumagin 

 Islands. When salted in briue it has a flavor very similar to mack- 



