164 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
fruit, and there is necessarily a commingling of interests. The num- 
ber of persons employed, even at the canneries that handle salmon 
exclusively, fluctuates considerably. In periods of abundance all avail- 
able “help’" is procured, but any decrease in the supply of fish is im- 
mediately followed by a corresponding diminution in the force. The 
figures already given represent the average number of employ6s which 
can properly be included under the head of salmon canning. 
Vessels and boats . — During tho salmon season there were 12 small 
vessels employed on these rivers and adjacent waters in the capacity 
of tenders or freighters for the canneries. They visit the principal 
fishing grounds and collect the catch of the boats, which they transport 
to the respective canneries they are working for. With one exception 
these are all sloops; two of them— the Boss and Challenge — are em- 
ployed part of the year as transports in the San Francisco oyster trade, 
and have been mentioned in that connection. The size ranges from 5 
to 17 tons; the average is about 12 tons. 
These vessels are owned at San Francisco, Vallejo, Benicia, and 
Black Diamond, but all are documented from the San Francisco 
custom-house and hail from that port; they have therefore been 
included with the statistics of that city, though, for the sake of clear- 
ness, they are mentioned here. These vessels are in no sense typical 
fishing craft. Many of them are old; they are of varying models, and 
there seems to be no effort made to keep them in shipshape order. So 
long as they hold together and can carry a cargo of fish in smooth 
water, nothing else appears to be required. The value ranges from 
$250 to $500 each. Two men constitute a crew. Their names, rig, and 
net tonnage are shown in the following list : 
Name. 
Pag. 
Net 
tonnage. 
Name. 
Rig. 
Net 
tonnage. 
"Rosa . 
Sloop 
11. 41 
Josephine 
Schooner. 
16. 41 
ChflllftTigft 
. . .do 
17. 31 
Knickerbocker 
Sloop 
5. 01 
Union ftl 
do 
9. 01 
Liberty... 
do 
12. 74 
Fannie Samos .... 
do 
10. 46 
Lizzie M 
... do 
15. 14 
Ida 
. . .do . . . . . 
14. 74 
May Fowler 
. . .do 
13. 85 
J A McClellan 
..do 
9.46 
Twilight 
. . .do ..... 
10. 16 
The typical salmon gill-net boat is used here for fishing, but it is not 
so large, on an average, as the boats on the Columbia River, and has 
less stability and seaworthiness. 
The scows on which many of the fishermen live are much like the 
“ arks w used by the gill-net shad fishermen on the Potomac River. 
44 They are variable in shape and appearance; flat-bottomed, with ver- 
tical parallel sides narrowed and slanting somewhat toward each end. 
They are boarded over above and are nearly covered by the house, 
only a narrow margin being left around the sides. The house gener- 
ally has but one room with a door at one end and two windows on each 
side. It is flat-roofed. Probably an average-size scow would be 20 
feet long and 12 feet wide, the house about 7 feet high and occupying 
