424 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



APPENDIX. 



No. 1. Extracts from report on the salmon fisheries of Alaska, ly Marshall McDonald. 



JULY 2, 1892. 

 ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALASKAN SALMON FISHERIES. 



The marvelous abundance of several species of salmon in Alaskan waters has been 

 long known, but in consequence of the remoteness of this region and its inaccessi- 

 bility, the abundant supply in rivers nearer markets, and a disposition on the part 

 of buyers to underrate Alaskan products, its fishery resources have not been laid 

 under contribution for market supply within a few years, during which we have seen, 

 as the result of reckless and improvident fishing, the practical destruction of the sal- 

 mon fisheries of the Sacramento and the reduction of the take on the Columbia to less 

 than one-half of what it was in the early history of the salmon-canning industry on 

 that river. At present the streams of Alaska furnish the larger proportion of the 

 canned salmon which find their way to the markets. 



The pioneer in the early development of the salmon-canning industry in Alaskan 

 waters was the Alaska Commercial Company, which in 1887 established a cannery 

 on Karluk Eiver, on the west side of Kadiak Island, and packed about 13,000 cases 

 of salmon. The enterprise proved exceedingly profitable, and operations were 

 rapidly extended so that the pack of this company on the Karluk River in 1888 

 aggregated 101,000 cases of 48 pounds each, representing a catch of over 1,200,000 

 blue backs or red salmon in the estnary of a small stream with a volume and drain- 

 age area not exceeding that of Rock Creek (the small stream flowing through the 

 Zoological Park and discharging into the Potomac River within the city limits of 

 Washington, D. C.). The enormous production of this year was secured by entirely 

 obstructing the river by running a fence across so that no fish could pass up, and by 

 continuing canning operations without intermission until late in October, when most 

 of the fish were dark and unfit for food. 



The immense pack made by the Alaska Commercial Company in 1887 and 1888, the 

 fame of which quickly extended to San Francisco, had two important results. The 

 attention of Congress was directed to the inevitable disaster that would overtake the 

 salmon fisheries of Alaska unless prompt measures were taken to restrain the improv- 

 ident and destructive methods employed for the capture of the salmon. Accordingly, 

 upon the recommendation of the Commissioner of Fisheries, an act for the protection 

 of the salmon fisheries was introduced into Congress and became a law on March 2, 

 1889, as follows: 



AN ACT to provide for the protection of the salmon fisheries of Alaska. 



"Be it enacted ~by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 

 in Congress assembled, That the erection of darns, barricades, or other obstructions in 

 any of the rivers of Alaska, with the purpose or result of preventing or impeding 

 the ascent of salmon or other anadromous species to their spawning grounds, is 

 hereby declared to be unlawful, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby autho- 

 ized and directed to establish such regulations and surveillance as may be necessary 

 to insure that this prohibition is strictly enforced and to otherwise protect tho sal- 

 mon fisheries of Alaska; and every person who shall be found guilty of a violation 

 of the provisions of this section shall be fined not less than two hundred and fifty 

 dollars for each day of the continuance of such obstruction. 



"SEC. 2. That the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries is hereby empowered and 

 directed to institute an investigation into the habits, abundance, and distribution 

 of the salmon of Alaska, as well as the present conditions and methods of the fish- 

 eries, with a view of recommending to Congress such additional legislation as may 

 be necessary to prevent the impairment or exhaustion of these valuable fisheries, 

 and placing them under regular and permanent conditions of production. 



"SEC. 3. That section nineteen hundred and fifty-six of the Revised Statutes of 

 the United States is hereby declared to include and apply to all the dominion of the 

 United States in the waters of Bering Sea; and it shall be the duty of the President, 

 at a timely season in each year, to issue his proclamation and cause the same to be 

 published for one month in at least one newspaper, if any such there be, published 

 at each United States port of entry on the Pacific Coast, warning all persons against 

 entering said waters for the purpose of violating the provisions of said section ; and 

 he shall also cause one or more vessels of the United States to diligently cruise said 

 waters and arrest all persons, and seize all vessels found to be, or to have been, 

 engaged in any violation of the laws of the United States therein." 



This act, though authorizing and directing the Secretary of the Treasury to estab- 

 lish such regulations and surveillance as should be necessary to insure that the pro- 



