Babcock. — The Great Fraser River Fishery 235 



run of sockeyes to the Fraser is shown every fourth year. 

 All the early explorers record it and quote the Indians as saying 

 it had always existed. It has been a characteristic peculiar to 

 the Fraser and unknown in any other river. Up to 1917 the 

 Fraser River district produced more sockeyes every fourth 

 year than the combined catches made in Alaskan waters dur- 

 ing all but one of those years, as the following statement 

 shows : 



SocKEYE Salmon Pack of the Fraser River System and in Alaska 



Year 



1901 

 190S 

 1909 

 1913 

 1917 



The sockeye salmon runs to the Fraser River system in the 

 big years have been alarmingly depleted, and the runs in the 

 small years are no longer of commercial importance. Both 

 are threatened with extinction. 



Complete records exist of conditions on both the fishing 

 and the spawning grounds of the Fraser system since 1900. 

 The record of the pack shows the catch, because the entire 

 catch is marketed in cans. The number of fishermen em- 

 ployed and the amount of gear used are also recorded. There 

 are adequate data also for a comparison of conditions on the 

 spawning beds since 1900. Dr. Gilbert, in "The Sockeye Run 

 on the Fraser River,"* says : 



No other sockeye stream has received such close and discrim- 

 inating study. Annual inspection has been made of the spawning beds 

 of the entire water-shed, and predictions of the run four years hence 

 have been fearlessly made. It is a matter of record how consistently 

 these prophecies have been fulfilled. 



The observations of conditions on the spawning beds have 

 been made by the same observer since 1900. 



•British Columbia Fisheries Report, 1917. 



