THE COD FISHERY OF ALASKA. 201 



T. Wbitford told me that the cod spawn in the vicinity of Sitka in spring, and that they have a 

 remarkable number of eggs. 



At Port Mulgrave, Yakutat Bay, we took but one cod in the harbor during the day spent 

 there, and this one was large but sick. Good fish are plentiful in the deeper water outside. Noth- 

 ing but hand-lines were used from the vessel. 



Capt, J. Baley reports cod very abundant on the Hoochenoo bank in Chatham Strait. The 

 bank extends from Hoochenoo Point to Point Samuel. He also states that there is a bank off 

 Point Gardiner, and that there are banks on the east shore of Baranoff Island near Poghibshi 

 Strait. According to Captain Haley small cod are abundant in Prince Frederick Sound. 



While on a visit to the Aleut village near Graham Harbor, Cook's Inlet, we were told by Mr. 

 Cohen that cod are present in the inlet throughout the year. On the 6th of July in Eefuge Cove, 

 Port Chatham, Cook's Inlet, a great many fine young cod were seined. It was in Port Chatham 

 that we first saw capelin schooling. Plenty of excellent cod were caught here with hand-lines from 

 the vessel. 



Around the island of Kodiak cod are very numerous. On the 9th of July, while the Yukon 

 was lying at anchor in the harbor of Saint Paul, schools of these fish were seen swimming about 

 her. These were fine, lively fish, evidently the first of the summer run, which Mr. B. G. Mclntyre 

 informed me had not yet fairly begun. Young cod were seined on Wooded Island July 13. Between 

 Kodiak and Unalashka are the extensive and well-known banks, Portlock, Seminoffsky, and the 

 Shumagins, which have furnished the great bulk of the cod so far taken in Alaska. 



There are cod banks in the vicinity of Unalashka. We had no difficulty in catching all we 

 wanted with a small trawl-line or with hand-lines late in July and early in October. In July native 

 fishermen at Iliuliuk were bringing in bidarka loads of beautiful fish, most of which were very 

 large, to dry them for use in winter. The wonderful abundance of young cod 3 to 4 inches long 

 was a feature here in October. 



The species has been seen as far west as the island of Atka, of the Aleutian chain. 



Cod have been reported abundant in Bristol Bay. They appear to be uncommon in Norton 

 Sound, though occurring again more abundantly further north, as far as the ice-line. The eastern 

 portion of Bering Sea may yet furnish important supplies of cod in suitable depths, since there is 

 an abundance of its favorite food, notably sand-launce, capelin, smelt, herring, and pollock, which 

 last is probably the " whiting" spoken of by Seemann as occurring abundantly in Hotham Inlet, 

 Kotzebue Sound. 



At the island of Saint Paul cod are taken rarely, the fur-seal having a monopoly of the catch. 



At Saint Lawrence Island Messrs. Maynard and Elliott caught cod on the 22d of August, 1874. 



The great fishing grounds of Kamtchatka are in the Okhotsk Sea and the sea of Kamtchatka. 



We were informed by one of the whaling captains in Plover Bay, last September, that he has 

 caught cod off the heads of Marcus Bay, East Siberia, in about latitude 64 north and about longi- 

 tude 1720 40' west. Off Indian Point (Cape Tchaplin), East Siberia, a little farther north than 

 Marcus Bay, we were told by Eskimo who came aboard the vessel that they sometimes take cod 

 at that point. 



In the Arctic Ocean we saw no traces of the Oadus morrhua, its place being supplied to some 

 extent by myriads of small polar cod (Borcogadus saida], which, like the pollock, has the lower jaw 

 longer than the upper. On the 19th of August, 1880, in latitude 66 45' north, longitude 166 35' 

 west, we saw great numbers of young Borcogadus, from an inch to an inch and a half long, swim, 

 ming under the tentacles of a Ctyawea-like jelly-fish. 



In general terms we may say that cod are found around the whole southern shore of Alaska, 



