96 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
Far more destructive to the fisheries than any other form of appa- 
ratus was the barricade now happily abolished by the salmon inspect- 
ors.- This consisted of a permanent obstacle of logs, boards, or 
netting laid across the stream so that the salmon could not pass, 
but remained in the pools below, from which they could easily be 
seined out. The essential evil was that the barrier remained through- 
out the season, and not a fish could reach the spawning beds. After 
four or five years (or the period of a generation of salmon) there 
would be no run of salmon in barricaded streams. This suicidal 
method was largely practiced in the early days of salmon fishing and 
canning, and still earlier by the Indians. With the canners it was a 
phase of the get-rich-quick idea, which has been the curse of Alaska. 
After long efforts the Treasury Department, through its salmon inspect- 
ors, has destroyed all these barriers, and probably none will be again 
erected. 
Tn the Chilkoot River, and in some other streams, the Indians build 
stone or wooden stands or platforms in the shallow, swift current, and 
stones are placed in lines on the bed of the stream in such a way as to 
compel the fish when on their way up the stream to swim by the 
stands. When the salmon are running, an Indian stands on each plat- 
form, and with a gaff hook on a long pole sweeps to the right and left 
through the turbid glacial water. The fish can not be seen and are 
struck at blindly, but considerable numbers are taken in this way. 
The fishermen and Indians condemn the pound nets and stationary 
traps, chiefly because these structures take the place of their own 
labor. This criticism is applied to all labor-saving devices, and is 
worthy of no consideration from the economic side. 
The canning and salting of salmon.—The first canneries in Alaska 
were built in 1878, one at Klawock and one at Sitka. Gradually the 
number increased, until in 1902 there were in operation in Alaska 
64 canneries and 19 salteries, and the pack in that year amounted to 
2,631,320 cases of forty-eight 1-pound canseach. In 1903 the number 
of canneries operated was reduced to 60, distributed geographically as 
follows: Southeast Alaska, 21; Prince William Sound, 2; Cook Inlet, 2; 
Kadiak Island and Chignik Bay, 8; Bristol Bay, 27. The total pack for 
1903 was 2,246,210 cases, valued at $9,748,599. 
The salteries are usually establishments of small capital, dealing 
chiefly with the humpback salmon. In most cases only the belly is 
salted, the rest of the fish being thrown away. This can hardly be 
called waste, as the belly is the best part, and the fish swarm in millions. 
Moreover, all the adults would die after spawning, and at present 
undoubtedly enough are permitted to spawn to keep up the supply. 
In Taku Bay is a cold-storage plant where king salmon, dog salmon, 
and steelheads are frozen and shipped to the eastern States and to 
