104 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
use vessels in this fishery as the cod feed and school so close to the 
harbors and coast that dories can make several trips daily to the fishing 
grounds. This method is successfully followed throughout the year, and 
in 1889 gave employment to 33 men. The winter catch is salted in 
bench, in the warehouses, and held there until spring, when the freighter 
arrives to carry the fish to market. 
Both trawls and hand lines are used, the former more extensively. 
The trawls are like those used in the Atlantic cod fishery. The natives 
at Unalaska have the ordinary type of steel hook for cod fishing, 
though they still prefer the wooden hooks made by themselves for 
halibut fishing. Crude and primitive as these hooks are, I am assured 
by competent authority that they are very effective in catching halibut. 
Any available material serves the natives as a line for cod fishing. It 
may be only pieces of old cord knotted together, or a piece of sail or 
salmon twine, but sometimes cod line is used. Small iron bolts, spikes, 
or pieces of lead are preferred for sinkers, but stones also serve for this 
purpose. 
Writing of the fisheries at Pirate Cove, which may be taken as fairly 
representative of all the Alaskan stations, Captain Tanner remarks : 
Cod fishing is now carried on in the vicinity of this harbor almost exclusively by 
means of dories, only one vessel having been engaged here in actual fishing during 
the present season. Most of the schooners had been sold, and those retained are used 
for freighting. The grounds resorted to are all within a short distance of the harbor, 
where dories are more convenient than larger craft. Trawls are chiefly employed, 
and during good weather they are hauled two and three times a day, but the fish are 
not dressed until the last haul for the day has been made. Cod fishing continues 
throughout the year. In summer, when the salmon are running, cod are not abuu- 
dant, but they reappear in incredible numbers as soon as the salmon leave. During 
the winter strong southeasterly gales may prevent the hauling of the trawls for a 
number of days at a time, but there is no period of the year when they can not be 
used at least several times a week. This is in marked contrast with the climate of 
the Grand and Western Banks, off the Atlantic coast, some ten degrees farther south, 
where the fishing vessels are often compelled to lie to for a week, and sometimes for 
a fortnight, with their dories lashed upon the deck. 
Salmon are extensively used for bait, particularly in the Okhotsk 
Sea. But halibut, herring, sculpins, flounders, and clams are employed 
for this purpose and answer well, though less attractive than salmon.* 
According to Dr. Bean the Alaska pollock “ is one of the best baits 
known for cod.” He also says that the Atka mackerel ( Pleurogrammus 
\ monopterygius ) possesses rare worth as a bait for cod, while the cusk, a 
species still rare in museums, forms an element in the bait supply for 
cod at the Shumagins. He also mentions the lant ( Ammodytes per- 
sonatus ), which is extremely abundant in most parts of Alaska, and the 
capelin (Mallotus villosus ), which is universal and abundant throughout 
the territory, as very important factors in the bait supply for the cod 
* Those fishing in Bering Sea usually take a few herring to begin with, after which 
halibut are exclusively used for bait. 
