294 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



made annual visits to the Point for the purpose of adding to their stock 

 of salmon. In the early sixties, according to one informant, who has 

 had a long experience in the region, several men were engaged in fish- 

 ing and purchasing at the Point in a small way. There was, however, 

 little expansion in the work for over a decade, and practically not until 

 about 1875, when parties from Seattle went there to engage more 

 regularly in the business, which then consisted chiefly in salting and 

 barreling fish. The canneries on the Fraser River also began to obtain 

 some of their supplies from this locality, but apparently never in large 

 quantities. 



The Indians furnished a part of the salmon 5 the remainder were 

 taken in drag seines measuring about 100 fathoms long by 35 feet deep 

 and with a 4-inch mesh. From 4 to G of these seines were in use from 

 about 1875. The seining-grounds were on the west side of Point 

 Roberts, extending northward from the southwest corner a distance of 

 about li miles, where the shore is free from stones and well adapted to 

 the purpose. These nets were ojjerated during the sockeye season, and 

 later for the silver salmon, which species was taken in the greater 

 abundance. Humpback salmon could be secured in large numbers, but 

 they had no sale and were only used by the Indians. The quinnat were 

 never fished for, as they ran too early in the year, when the weather 

 was still stormy. Purse seines have also been employed about Point 

 Roberts for some years, and are still used there to some extent. 



There are no figures showing tlie catch during this period, but it is 

 said to have fluctuated greatly, dependent upon the abundance of the 

 fish and the number of men at work, the latter having varied from 

 year to year. Between 1875 and 1889, according to the accounts 

 received, the maximum number of whites present in any season was 

 about 30. In some of those years the output would not have exceeded 

 450 barrels of salted salmon, while in others it reached as many as 

 3,000 barrels. This was in addition to what might have been sent to 

 the Fraser River. 



Fishing on a greater or less scale is carried on in most of the Wash- 

 ington rivers which empty into Puget Sound and the Gulf of Georgia. 

 The Skagit is the principal of these rivers, and is especially noteworthy 

 as the resort of the sockeye as well as of all of the other species of 

 salmon. The runs are relatively large and excellent opportunities for 

 fishing are thus afforded. Previous to 1893, however, most of the 

 catch, such as it was, was disposed of locally to ranchmen, mill hands, 

 and settlers, but in the year mentioned it is said that 300,000 pounds 

 of salmon from this river were sold to the markets in Seattle. These 

 were caught between Sedro and the mouth of the river, and consisted 

 in large part of quinnat and steelheads. The number of fishermen was 

 about 50, of whom perhai^s one-half made this business their regular 

 occupation. Above Sedro, including Baker River, the catch during 

 the same year, reported to have been about 136,000 pounds, was still 

 entirely utilized by the inhabitants of the neighboring country. 



