88 PISHING-GEOTrnDS OF IS'OETH AMEEICA. 



discussion. The solid log-houses here are built convenient to tlie water's edge. Between the 

 houses and the water may be seen the dug-out canoes and the fish-drying frames; here and there 

 are hung the bark fishing-lines for halibut furnished with their clumsy but effective hooks. Some 

 very good illustrations of the Sitka halibut hooks, furnished by Commander Beardslee, U. S. K"., 

 appear in Forest and Stream, of 1879. The hook consists essentially of two pieces of wood 

 fastened together at one end with strips of spruce roots so as to form an acute angle with 

 each other, the longer arm of the angle being armed with a bent, pointed piece of iron ; the wood 

 is generally carved so as to represent some animal whose co-operation thus secured will insure 

 successful fishing. The bait (usually herring) is tied on so as to cover not only the hook but also 

 the wooden shaft in which the hook is fastened ; halibut will gulp down the bait as long as it 

 lasts, opening their jaws wider and wider; the short arm of the hook, being so fixed as to leave 

 only a narrow space between it and the iron point, will admit of the motion necessary to fasten the 

 fish, but prevents its escape. A halibut thus held with its mouth wide open will soon be drowned, 

 and can easily be taken into a canoe. This Indian style of halibut hook is much more effective 

 than the common halibut hook of civilization. A very common method of fishing for halibut at Sitka 

 is by the use of set-lines, each provided with one hook, a stone sinker, an inflated stomach of seal 

 for a buoy, with a small flag or signal attached to it so as to show when a flsh is hooked. It is 

 usual to see these lines set in ten to twenty fathoms of water off the numerous inlets of Sitka 

 Bay. Salmon are caught by trolling with herring bait, by seining, and by spearing. Edgecumbe 

 trout (Ahshut of the Sitkas), Salmo Gairdnerii Eich., were taken by the spear on their way out (?) 

 from Lake Edgecumbe to the sea in June. Herring are caught in great quantities' by impaling 

 them on pointed nails fastened into a long, thin strip of wood. The process bf collecting herring 

 eggs, by receiving them on spruce boughs, is too well known to need description here. The 

 prevailing fish on the drying-frames at Sitka was halibut. This was cut in strips and dried 

 partly in the open air. and partly by smoking in the dwelling-houses. The fire is made in the 

 center of the space inclosed by the walls, there being no floor covering this portion, and the 

 smoke escapes through a wide opening in the roof. A frame of poles supports the strips of flsh 

 to be smoked. Very little fire and a great deal of smoke are the requirements. Besides flsh, it 

 is common to see viscera and other portions of porpoises hanging on the poles. The price of fresh 

 flsh at Sitka is usually about one-half cent per pound. .'Halibut ranged from twenty to seventy- 

 flve pounds in weight during our stay; we were told, however, by Mr. Whitford, that he has seen 

 two caught in the harbor, one weighing two hundred and fifty-six and the other two hundred and 

 sixty pounds. 



I am indebted to Mr. George Hamilton, of Chacon, for the following information about halibut 

 at Klawack : 



Their average size is about fifty pounds ; they are not brought in plentifully from November 

 to March, but they are abundant during the rest of the year; Indians do not fish for them much 

 ill the winter; they are caught with the Sitka style of hook with kelp or bark lines, or sometimes 

 eastern cod and halibut lines. Squid bait (Octopus) is preferred. The fishing is done in from ten 

 to twenty fathoms of water. For the cannery, Indians go off in the afternoon and bring in the 

 fish on the following morning. They will average eight or ten halibut to a canoe, having in 

 it two persons who use not more than three or four hooks. The price at Klawack in 1878 was 

 one-half cent per pound, which, unnecessarily and through mistake, was increased in 1879 to one 

 and one-half ceuts. The amount canned in 1878 was two hundred or three hundred cases in two- 

 pound cans, there being two dozen cans in a case. These were shipped to Sisson, Wallace & Co., 

 San Francisco. Mr. Hamilton has seen more halibut in the vicinity of Warren Island than 



