320 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



A good-sized cannery was founded in 1894 at Friday Harbor, on tbe 

 eastern side of San Juan Island, wUicli is a convenient center for 

 securing sockeye from the various fislieries about the San Juan group. 

 Its supplies up to 1896 had been obtained chiefly by means of traps at 

 the southern end of San Juan Island and from the Indian reef-netters, 

 but apparently it has been found impossible to rely entirely upon the 

 catch of that species. In 1895 a cannery was built at Port Angeles, 

 with the expectation that a sufficient quantity of sockeye for its own 

 use could be obtained in the Strait of Fuca, but all efforts to that end 

 have met with failure, and it has been obliged to look elsewhere for its 

 stock of that species. Some years ago a similar exijeriment was tried 

 at Clallam, but it was soon abandoned. The sixth cannery examined in 

 1895 was an experimental one of small size in Bellingham Bay, which 

 expected to obtain its catch in the vicinity of the mouth of the Nooksack 

 River. 



There were 11 canneries in operation in 1896: 12 in 1897, and 18 in 

 1898. The new ones were located mainly at Blaine, on Lummi Island, 

 in Bellingham Bay, at Anacortes in Skagit Bay, and at Seattle. At 

 Anacortes there were 3 canneries, all established in 1896, with the 

 object of taking advantage of the run of sockeye belonging to the 

 Skagit River. The pack in 1897 was exceedingly large, and to a very 

 great extent consisted of sockeye, of which the run in that year, as 

 elsewhere explained, seems to have been unprecedented. 



On the Fraser River the canning season is practically coincident with 

 the period of the sockeye run. A few canneries may start up in June 

 in order to do something with the quinnat, and in those years when the 

 supply of sockeye is inadequate for a full pack some establishments 

 may continue operations during more or less of the silver salmon run. 

 In Washington also little or nothing is done before the appearance of 

 the sockeye, and while most of the canneries there would be satisfied 

 to close with that species, could they obtain it in sufficient quantity, 

 nearly all have been more dependent on other species than the Cana- 

 dian canneries and are more likely to keep open later. The Seattle 

 canneries, whose supplies are obtained outside the sockeye region, begin 

 operations much later than the more northern canneries and continue 

 them during the greater part of the fall. 



While the positions of trust in the several canneries are chiefly filled 

 by whites, nearly all the labor, both in British Columbia and in Wash- 

 ington, is performed by Chinese, who become exceedingly expert in 

 every branch of the business and work rapidly. The secret of their 

 employment to so great an extent is the cheap rates of compensation 

 with which they are satisfied — a condition which practically excludes 

 white labor, but without which it is difficult to see how the canning 

 industry could now be maintained. It would, moreover, be impossible, 

 under existing circumstances, to secure the amount of white labor 

 required in the large canning districts, in view of the temporary nature 

 of the work. In some of the canneries, especially on the Fraser River, 



