86 riSHlSG-GEOUNDS OF ^y'OETH AMERICA. 



The sucker family {CatostomidcB) has but a single species so far as known, and that is 

 apparently identical with the long-nosed sucker of the Great Lakes and the Upper Mississippi. 

 This fish is abundant in the Yukon and other large rivers in Northern Alaska. It is of 

 moderately large size, reaching five pounds in weight. It is generally of a reddish color. The 

 body is so full of, bones that it is unfit for food, but the heads, when boiled with the roe, make a 

 very palatable soup. These fish are filled with spawn in April, a period when other fish appear 

 to be out of season.^ 



There is one lamprey known to us from Alaska, the Ammocwtes aureus of Bean. This one is 

 extremely abundant in the Yukon, according to Mr. L. M. Turner, and is used for food. Mr. 

 Tumei's specimen was taken at Anvik (latitude 63 north, longitude ICO west from Greenwich). 



16. A KEVIEV/ OF TEE ALASKAN FISHING-GSOUNDS BY DISTEICTS. 



I have been thus explicit in naming the food-fishes of the Territory and tracing their 

 distribution, in order that their importance as a means of subsistence for the inhabitants may be 

 fully appreciated. All parts of the coast of Alaska are abundantly supplied with fish, and every 

 male native of suitable age is to be considered a fisherman — one who employs the best expedients 

 within his reach for the capture of fish, because his very life depends in great measure on that 

 supply. Even the women and children help to increase the store for winter, tugging away 

 bi'avely at great strings of salmon or other species caught in the seines by the men. Whenever 

 there is any i^ulling of this kind to do, you may see them skirting along the shore, half floating 

 the burden near the water's edge. The total number of fishermen estimated for Alaska in Census 

 Bulletin No. 176 is fifty-six hundred and fifty, which is certainly not too high. According 

 to Petroff's preliminary report on the population of that Territoiy, there are about thirty 

 thousand inhabitants, distributed as will be seen in the following table : 



POPULATION OF ALASKA. 

 [From Petroff.] 



Southeastern Alaska 5, 517 



Estimate of Prince William Sound >. 500 



Kenai Mission or Cook's Inlet district 984 



Interior division 2,226 



Kadiak Parish 2,606 



Belkofsky Parish 669 



Unalashka Parish 1,392 



Bristol Bay division „ 4^ 340 



Pribylov Islands 390 



Saint Lawrence Island (estimated) 400 



Nunivak Island (estimated) 500 



Kuskoquim division 3 654 



Yukon delta 2 006 



Uphoon mouth to Anvik 1 345 



Coast of Norton Sound from Saint Michael's upward and as far as Sledge Island 633 



King's Island to Point Barrow 2 990 



30, 152 

 'Dall, in Report of Commissioner of Agriculture for 1870, p. 388. 



