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tation. These and the hump-back variety are the kinds 
most used for drying and preserving for winter use, as 
well as for barter with the northern traders. The dog 
salmon is found in nearly every river in Alaska, even 
very far north, and its extreme abundance is one trait for 
which it is favored by the Alaskans, though it is much 
smaller than some other kinds. 
The SILtvER SALMON is not so important as those. 
before mentioned, though they are used for canning in 
some places. They arrive late in the season, which may 
account in a great measure for their being less popular 
The supply is generally laid in, and the hungry natives 
have sated themselves before their tardy arrival; therefore 
they are not so eagerly sought. This is one of the nest 
building fishes, whose curious habits have been the study 
of scientists. They actually wear their snouts away in 
pushing the stone in place for their nests. 
The Hump-Back Satmon is the smallest of the Alas- 
kan salmon, and the most abundant. These are the 
fishes of which it has been said they are more numerous 
than the drops of water in which they live! The natives 
catch them with sticks filled with nails, which they 
plunge into the schools, and by which they get enormous 
returns by simply scraping them up and flinging them 
ashore to the women who are in waiting, and to whom 
the duty is entrusted to disembowl them and prepare 
them for drying. The wildest excitement greets their 
coming, and the people simply gorge tiemselves with the 
fat products of their fishing. This fish is another that is 
yearly abundant and widespread over the territory, but it 
has comparatively no commercial value, because of its 
being remarkable for its rapid decomposition on expo- 
sure to the air. 
The Rep Savmon is the one now holding the most 
merchantable importance of all the salmon tribe; and in 
this case, as in many others, beauty has supplanted merit, 
for the flesh is really not so palatable as that of the king 
