The Kadiak Bear and his Home 



dog and humpback, on the contrary, are not so par- 

 ticular, and are found almost everywhere. In Sep- 

 tember there is a run of silver salmon, which, like 

 the red salmon, will only swim a stream with a lake 

 at its head. They run up to 40 pounds, and the 

 bears grow fat on them before turning into winter 

 quarters. The skeletons of this big fish, cleaned 

 by bear, are found along every small stream run- 

 ning from the lakes. 



The large canneries, like the one at Karluk, on 

 Karluk River, near the western end of Kadiak, 

 put up only the red salmon. They are not nearly 

 as good eating as the humpback or silver salmon, 

 but are red, and this color distinction the market 

 demands. The catches at Karluk run up into the 

 tens of thousands, and one thinks of this with 

 many misgivings, remembering the fate of the sea 

 otter and bear. Good hatcheries are constantly 

 busy, keeping up the supply, but it appears that 

 though one in every ten thousand of these fish is 

 marked before being set free, so far as known no 

 marked fish have ever been captured, 



On our return to Kadiak Island, we found the 

 streams still free of salmon, and the vegetation had 

 become so rank as to interfere a good deal with 

 traveling and sighting game. The whole party 

 looked serious, and the strain was beginning to tell, 



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