THE ALASKAN FISHING-GROUNDS. 



93 



was oue hundred and fifty barrels of bellies. Estimating fifty fisli to the barrel we shall have 

 seventy-five hundred fish, weighing about three hundred thousand jjounds; of course, only a 

 small portion of each fish goes to form the finished product. 



For the sake of completeness I mention some of the principal food-fishes of Cook's Inlet : 



Mallotus villosus, (Muller) Cuv. 



Thaleichthys paciflcus, (Rich.) Girard. 



Pleuronectes stellatus, PaUas. 



Lepidopsetta biliueata, (Ayres) Gill. 



Hippoglossus vulgaris, Fleming. 



PoUachius chalcogrammus, (Walb.) Jor. & Gilb. 



Gadus morrhua, Linnseus. 



Tilesia gracilis, (Tiles.) Swainson. 



Hemilepidotus trachurus, (Pallas) Giinther. 



" Jordanii, Bean. 



Hexagrammus asper, Steller. 

 Aiiimodytes personatus, Girard. 



Salvelinus malma, (Walb.) Jor. & Gilb. 



Salmo purpuratus, Pallas. 



Oncorhynchus chouicha, (Walb.) Jor. & Gilb. 



" keta, (Walb.) Gill & Jor. 



" nerka, (Walb.) Gill & Jor. 



" kisutch, (Walb.) Jor. & Gilb. 



" gorbuscha, (Walb.) Gill & Jor. 



Clupea mirabilis, Girard. 



KODIAK PARISH. 



The total population of this division is stated to be about twenty-six hundred. Taking 

 our usual percentage of this we shall have two hundred and twenty fishermen, most of whom 

 are Kodiak Innuits and Creoles. The methods and results of the fishing, particularly on the 

 island of Kodiak, have been greatly modified by civilization. The people have a wonderful 

 wealth of fish in the waters around them, and they have learned how to capture and preserve 

 them to the best advantage. Boats and small vessels of ten to thirty tons replace to a great 

 extent the bidarka. While we were at Saint Paul a small vessel was being built for Captain 

 Caton. The settlement on Wood Island has a small shipyard, where vessels of twenty-five or 

 thirty tons are built for fishing and trade, according to Petroff.^ The village of Afognak engages 

 also in boat-building, at which the men are expert; they have many orders, chiefly for row-boats 

 for the fishermen. Every settlement in this parish is engaged in sea-otter hunting, many of them 

 almost exclusively. From Mitrofania at the southern extreme to Douglas in the north, in the 

 waters bathing the eastern shore of the peninsula of Aliaska and the islands of the Kodiak group 

 natives pursue this valuable quarry, securing, according to Mr. Petroff's returns, nine hundred 

 skins in 1879. This number includes the catch to the eastward to Mount Saint Elias, but falls to 

 the share of Kodiak Parish mainly. The small settlement of Ayakhtalik, on Goose Island, gets 

 quite a number of sea-lion skins around Sitkhinak Island. The people of Kaguiak obtain a few 

 sea lion skins, and the Orlovsk men secure a great many annually. 



This parish is profusely supplied with cod, halibut, salmon, herring, capelin, eulachon, clams, 

 and mussels. There are many other fishes which are abundant, but those named are the great 

 staples. On the islands of Kodiak and Afognak alone Mr. Fisher records the following quantities 

 prepared for home consumption : 



' Preliminary Report on Census of Alaska, 1881, p. 29. 



