90 FISHmG-GEOUNDS OF NOETH AMEEICA. 



PEINCE WILLIAM SOUND DIVISION. 



According to Mr. Petroff's estimate, there are five hundred Indians in this division, and 

 among them, if -we continue our usual proportion, there are about one hundred adult male 

 fishermen. We have no information about the fishes or the methods of fishing, but it is safe 

 to say that the region closely resembles the preceding one just described. They certainly have 

 flat-fishes, flounders, halibut, cod, tom-cod, sculpins, launce, herring, and all the species of salmon, 

 and doubtless many more ; hair seal, too, are sure to be found just as they are in the inlet. 



- KENAI OE cook's INLET DISTEICT. 



The number of adult male fishermen in this division is near two hundred in a total 

 population of nine hundred and eighty-four. The most important fishes, as will be seen from 

 the accompanying list, are halibut, cod, scaled sculpins, launce, capeliu, eulachon, trout, salmon, 

 and herring. The native methods of capture are essentially like those of Southeastern Alaska. 

 This region is the field of two salmon fisheries operated by Capt. James Wilson, for the Alaska 

 Commercial Company, and by Capt. H. E. Bowen, for the Western Fur and Trading Company. 

 Mr. William J. Fisher, United States Coast Survey tidal observer at Saint Paul, Kodiak, has 

 kindly obtained from these gentlemen most of the information we possess about those fisheries. 

 Writing of the " king salmon," Mr. Fisher says : • 



" The Indians living near these two rivers catch only very small numbers of the fish, partly 

 owing to their very imperfect implements used for the purpose. The fish being too large they 

 cannot use their spears effectually. Their usual and most efficient mode of capture is as follows : 

 A stage is erected in the river which an Indian mounts, holding a large wicker basket with an 

 aperture of about five feet square, in the river, patiently waiting, sometimes for weary hours, 

 before a salmon is so foolish as to enter the basket, while many hundred will go past, over, or 

 under the basket, ignoring the invitation to enter. The natives smoke and dry their catch, and 

 when they do sell any they charge at the rate of ten cents per fish." 



Mr. Fisher gives the following notes on the " chowicheaJ' or " king salmon" (0. chouicha): 



" They are found in the inlet from May 20 to August 20, being more abundant during small 

 tides 5 they are only one-fifth as plentiful as the silver salmon (0. Msutch), and one-third as 

 abundant as red salmon (0. nerTca); they reach a maximum length of sis feet and a weight of forty 

 pounds ; they appear regularly on the 20th of May, running in pairs and not in schools, following 

 the shore closely to avoid the beluga ; they refuse to take the hook at all times ; they prey upon 

 eulachon and sticklebacks, not consuming very much; they are caught by the whites in weirs and 

 nets; the nets are (of) eight and one-half inch mesh, twelve feet deep, and one hundred and twenty 

 feet long, and are used during the entire season ; the average daily catch is about one hundred 

 fish; they are caught more plentifully from- (the) first (of the ebb) to half-ebb tide; the natives 

 dry them for winter use, while the whites salt them for shipment to Sau Francisco; small 

 quantities are smoked ; about three hundred barrels were salted in the season of 1880 ; one 

 vessel, employing from five to eight men, is engaged in the fishery." 



"The run of salmon in 1880 at Kenai was very light until July 20. Prior to that date the fish 

 were running largely at Tyonik, about seventy miles up Cook's Inlet from Kenai, and also up 

 the Sutchitna (Sushetno) Eiver at the head of the Inlet. These fish have seldom been known 

 to go up the latter river during past years, and then only in very small numbers. The Sutchitna 

 (Sushetno) Eiver Indians, who, owing to scarcity of fish heretofore in their river, always bought 

 their winter supply of smoked and dried fish from the natives of Tyonik, caught such an 

 abundant supply in 1880 as to enable them to sell to their former purveyors." 



