FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1907. 55 
FERTILIZER AND OIL, 
The objection to the use of herring, salmon, and other food fishes 
for fertilizer and oil, which was treated in detail in last year’s report, 
is still urged by many of the residents. As in 1906, there is but one 
fertilizer plant—that of the Alaska Oil and Guano Company, at Kil- 
lisnoo—engaged in the industry to any extent, and it is to the opera- 
tions of this company that most of the objection is made. In 1906 
this establishment handled 33,500 barrels of herring and 18,000 bar- 
rels of salmon (principally dog and humpback salmon), while in 1907 
there were utilized but 24,800 barrels of herring and 4,900 barrels of 
salmon, a very considerable decrease. A very small part of these 
were salted for food. Two steamers were used in fishing in 1906, 
while but one was so employed in 1907. The fertilizer prepared this 
year at Killisnoo amounted to 502 tons from herring, valued at 
$17,020, and 88 tons from salmon, valued at $2,980; while the oil 
extracted amounted to 80,877 gallons from herring, valued at $16,175, 
and 14,123 gallons from salmon, valued at $2,825. 
Late in 1906 a small fertilizer plant was established by the Hume 
Fertilizer Company, at Scow Bay, on Wrangell Narrows, for the pur- 
pose of utilizing herring. The plant was very crude, however, and for 
fertilizer operations was soon abandoned. Its output amounted to 
5 tons of fertilizer and about 805 gallons of oil. 
The fertilizer plant installed in the barge Enoch Talbot at Pleasant 
Bay, in 1905, was removed from the vessel in 1906 and installed ashore, 
but it has never been operated, nor has the small plant installed in 
connection with the Tonka cannery. | 
A small quantity of oil from shark livers was prepared in central 
Alaska. 
AQUATIC FURS. 
BEAVER. 
The production of beaver is steadily declining. At one time the 
animals were quite plentiful on the Alaska Peninsula, but in the last 
few years have become practically extinct in this section. The 
greater part of the present supply comes from the Yukon River and 
its tributaries. A few are secured from the Kenai Peninsula. In 1905 
the catch amounted to 1,935 skins, valued at $8,271; in 1906 to 1,536 
skins, valued at $8,620, while in 1907 it had decreased to 1,159 skins, 
valued at $6,154. In 1907 22 pounds of beaver castors, valued at $33, 
were also secured. 
MUSKRAT. 
Most of the muskrat skins obtained by the trappers are used by the 
traders in barter with the natives for more valuable furs, hence but 
few are exported, and as the last are the ones of which an accurate 
