THE FISHERY EESO DUCES OF ALASKA. ' 85 



poorest salmon salted, though it sells best on accoimt of its red color. For my own part I think 

 the fresh gorlusclia equal to any other salmon, but I prefer the chowichee bellies among the salt 

 fish. There is nothing on the west coast which exactly corresponds with the Maine salmon. Salmo 

 Oairdnerii is most like it in general appearance, and sometimes approaches it in size, but its habits 

 are different, since it is found filled with ripe ova in June. We have this species from Sitka and 

 Kodiak. It is very difficult to distinguish Gairdner's trout from the " rainbow trout" {8. irideus), 

 so well known in the McCloud River, the characters which are supposed to separate them being 

 unimportant. I found at Sitka one young trout which may be called irideus or Oairdnerii 

 indifferently, and it will puzzle any one to tell which it really is. Clark's trout [Salmo purpuratus) 

 is very abundant in Southern Alaska, and must be rare to the northward. Dall says that it is 

 not found north of Aliaska Peninsula. Captain Hooper had it from Northern Alaska, but the 

 exact locality is not stated. This beautiful species is not known to reach the great size in 

 Alaska that is claimed for occasional individuals in the Columbia Eiver, but it is very abundant 

 and an excellent food-flsh. We fouud it feeding on sticklebacks [Gasterosteus microcephahcs, 

 Girard) in Piseco Lake at Sitka. The species known in California as the " Dolly Varden " trout 

 is everywhere present in Alaska, reaching as much as fifteen pounds in weight, and literally 

 swarming in the streams and adjacent tidal waters. The young of this trout were found as far 

 north as Cape Lisburne, and the species is very abundant in Northeastern Siberia. While it 

 remains in the streams it is generally dark colored, but after a sojourn in the sea upon re-entering 

 the brooks and rivers it quickly shows its beautiful red spots. We found that individual&.taken 

 from the salt water showed no trace of red spots, but immediately assumed them upon being 

 immersed in spring water. This difference of color, varying with the place of residence, has led 

 to the supposition that they represent two species, the large silvery ones in the coves and bays 

 being called salmon trout while the smaller inland form is known as brook trout. There is good 

 evidence of the occurrence of one species of Oncorhynchus (0. gorbvscha), the little humpback 

 salmon, in Colville River. Captain Hooper reports that " the salmon is the only variety of fish 

 in the Arctic that is of any value. Although smaller than the salmon caught farther south, they 

 are of fine flavor. They are quite plentiful, and the coast natives cure large quantities of them 

 by smoking and drying for winter use.'" Capt. E. E. Smith, who was the Corwin's ice pilot 

 on her cruise of 1880, in 1875 put up in salt two barrels of little gorhuscha which he bought at the 

 mouth of Colville Eiver. 



The sole representative of the herring family of much importance as a source of food is the 

 Cliipea mirabilis of Girard, the common sea-herring of the Pacific coast. Widely distributed and 

 extremely abundant, invaluable as bait and delicious on account of its fatness, it deserves a high 

 rank among the staples of Alaskan waters. There are no finer herring anywhere than may be 

 seined at Iliuliuk and sometimes near Saint Paul. They are as plentiful as menhaden once 

 were in Peconic Bay, so plentiful that a lazy Indian with a stick armed with pointed nails can 

 soon impale a canoe load ; vessels have sailed for hours through shoals of them which seemed 

 unending; acres of grass are sometimes covered with their eggs when a high tide takes them far 

 ashore and the receding waters suddenly leave them aground. Natives are very prompt to profit 

 by such accidents. When we came into Chugachik Bay, in Cook's Inlet, we found a sand spit 

 strewn with recently stranded herring and their wasted eggs, while here and there were groups 

 of poles selected from driftwood on which the fish had been hung up to dry after being split and 

 having the head of one passed through the gills and mouth of another. "The spawn clinging to 

 blades of grass after a little sun-drying had a rather pleasant, slightly salt taste. 



'Report of cruise of Corwin, November 1, 1880 (1881), p. 68. 



