ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 4Q1 



These canneries pack away every year from 200,000 to 250,000 cases of 

 red salmon, each case requiring on an average 14 fish, making a grand 

 total of from 2,000,000 to 2,500,000 salmon caught there every season. 



The owners of these canneries, foreseeing or fearing that a few years 

 would bring about a total destruction of the red salmon ifno protective 

 measures were adopted, agreed among themselves not to fish on one 

 day in each week and on that day to leave open the mouth of the river 

 to afford the fish an opportunity of ascending to the lake. In addition, 

 they established a first-class hatchery, capable of turning out several 

 millions of young fish every season. This hatchery was located on the 

 bank of the Karluk Eiver at the head of tide water, about 2 miles 

 above the canneries. The hatchery, however, has not been in opera- 

 tion within the last two years. A very careful examination of it by 

 Messrs. Luttrell and Lasey showed it to be in very good order, requir- 

 ing only trilling repairs. A competent person had been employed by 

 the canneries to superintend the hatchery, and had for his use a com- 

 fortable dwelling house. The experiment proved successful in so far 

 as several millions of young salmon were hatched, but later on it was 

 found that the water used in the hatchery and obtained from a ravine 

 had become surcharged with impurities, covering the young fish with a 

 species of parasite, eventually causing death. This difficulty can very 

 easily be obviated by leading the waters from the Karluk River to the 

 hatchery, a distance of about 300 yards, in an iron pipe or wooden 

 flume, at a cost not to exceed $500. 



This hatchery the canneries propose to turn over to the United States 

 Government, providing the Government is willing to operate it instead 

 of establishing a hatchery on the island of Afoguac. 



The object of Mr. Lasey was to make plain that Mr. Luttrell believed 

 Afognac Island to be ill chosen as a place for establishing a hatchery. 

 Its reservation would entail the destruction of several canneries located 

 thereon, the value of two of which is estimated at over $100,000. These 

 canneries have already suffered great pecuniary loss by reason of the 

 compulsory closing of their establishments, and it would seem that a 

 claim for damages against the Government would properly lie. The 

 United States would be obliged to purchase these canneries and other 

 improvements, and the amount necessary therefor would greatly exceed 

 $100,000. On the other hand, the owners of the Karluk Eiver can- 

 neries have erected and equipped a hatchery, and this these owners 

 have agreed to transfer gratis to the Government, and stand ready so 

 to do whenever the Government chooses to accept. 



In view of these facts, Surveyor Lasey states that Mr. Luttrell, after 

 repeated conferences with the owners of the several canneries, had 

 decided to make the following recommendations bearing upon the 

 subject: 



First, To abandon Afognac Island as a Government reservation, for 

 the following reasons: 



(a) It does not require for the purposes of a hatchery an island con- 

 taining an area of over 600 square miles. 



(/;) The natural respurces of the island, particularly the timber, are 

 needed not only by the inhabitants of the island, but by the whole of 

 the peninsula and adjacent islands lying southwest down to Unalaska, 

 and the closing of the island would seriously affect the whole country, 

 and its industries. 



(c) The Government would be obliged to purchase the canneries and 

 fishing stations and all improvements existing on the islands, the claim- 

 ants of which have already made application for patents and deposited 

 H. Doc. 92, pt. 2 20 



