192 BESOURCES OP CALIFORNIA. 



immediately after catching, and have kept them in salt until 

 their arrival here ; whereas the fish would have been better, 

 and the process cheaper, if the drying could have been done 

 near the fishing ground. 



The principal fishing grounds are off the Fox Islands, the 

 Choumagin Islands, and Kodiak, and a few boats have gone 

 to the Ochotsk. A large part of the ocean near our new pos- 

 session ofiers a fine field for fishing, but the depth of water 

 has been examined in comparatively few places. Off the 

 Choumagin Islands there is a bank, and the depth of water at 

 a distance of thirty-five miles is from forty to fifty fathoms. 

 Fifty miles south, 83 west of the southernmost point of the 

 Choumagin, there is a bank forty-five fathoms. Along the 

 southeastern coast of Afognak and Kodiak, there is a bank of 

 forty-five fathoms, but east of St. Paul's there is a " pocket " 

 with ninety fathoms. South by east, fourteen miles from the 

 eastern end of the easternmost of the Trinity Islands, there is 

 a bank with fifty fathoms. Half-way between Trinity Island 

 and Oukanok, soundings give fifty-five fathoms. East of the 

 south end of Niuniak Island, distant twenty-eight miles, the 

 water is fifty fathoms, and ten miles further east forty fathoms 

 deep. Nine miles southeast from the Sannach Reef, in latitude 

 54 20', longitude 162 30', bottom is found at thirty-five 

 fathoms. In latitude 53 35' and longitude 164 10', soundings 

 are obtained in fifty fathoms. In the eastern part of Behring's 

 Sea there is a cod bank with an area of 18,000 square miles 

 and a depth of less than fifty fathoms. 



Our Coast Survey could scarcely render better service to 

 the country than by detailing several vessels to make a recon- 

 noissance of all the waters about Alaska, so as to ascertain pre- 

 cisely where the best fishing grounds are. That is work that 

 must be done, and the sooner the better. Professor Davidson 



" Next to the fur trade in its legitimate pursuit, the fisher- 

 ies Of the coast of the new territory will prove the most valu- 



