94 



FISHING-GEOUNDS OF KORTH AMEBIC A. 



It must be kept in mind that one pound of itlcali represents ten pounds of fresh fish. Mr. 

 Fisher's estimates of the supplies of the settlements on Cook's Inlet and part of Aliaska Peninsula 

 is as follows : 



Thirty-four Creole families put up 



Tliree hundred and ten Indian families put up. 



Total . 



Salted salmon. Salmon spawn. 



Barrels. 

 170 



170 



Barrels. 



17 



155 



TJkali. 



Pownds. 

 25, 500 

 230, 000 



172 



255, 500 



The average retail price of fresh flsh at Saint Paul is one-half cent per pound, while the 

 average price of fresh beef is ten cents per pound, and of salt pork fifteen cents. Cooked oysters 

 are brought up from San Francisco and sell at forty cents per can. Canned lobsters from the 

 same city are retailed at the same price. Clams from the vicinity sell for twenty cents a pail, 

 fresh. Small quantities of salmon are smoked by the natives. Mr. Fisher names the following 

 shell-fish as of common occurrence : Gardium corbis, Cardium LaPerousii, Modiola, Tapes staminea, 

 Saxidomus NuttalUi. 



THE KARLUK RIVER SALMON FISHERIES. 



Karluk Eiver, on the west side of Kodiak Island, furnishes more salt salmon than any other 

 Alaskan stream, about sixteen hundred barrels having been secured there during the season of 

 1880 by two firms. One of these fisheries is owned by the Western Fur and Trading Company of 

 San Francisco, and is operated by Capt. H. E. Bowen, of Saint Paul, Kodiak. Mr. Fisher has 

 obtained from Captain Bowen the following account of that fishery : It was established in 1880, at 

 the mouth of the river, and was active during June, July, August, September, and part of 

 October. Fish run up the river into a lake — the source of the river — about seventeen miles. 

 Tide- water extends up the stream about four miles. The only obstructions are rapids. All the 

 species of Oncorhynclms now recognized run into the river; they are known by the Euasian names 

 '' krasuoi riba," " keezitch," " chowichee," "gorbuscha," and "hoikoh." The trout or "sumgah" 

 {Salvelinus malma) also occurs here abundantly. 



Salmon are caught at this fishery by seines, in the handling of which dories are used. The 

 natives use their spears as well as seines ; instead of dories they use bidarkas. There are about 

 three hundred natives at the Karluk settlement, nearly all of whom are Kodiak Innuit. It is 

 stated by Captain Bowen that these three hundred caught and dried at least one hundred 

 thousand salmon (averaging one-half pound each in the dried state) during the summer. 



The seines here are twenty-five fathoms long, three fathoms deep, with a mesh of three and 

 one-fourth inches ; they cost thirty-dollars each. Four dories, sixteen feet long, are in use. The 

 fishery employs twenty men, five of whom are Norwegians and fifteen natives of Alaska. The 

 product of the fishery is as follows : 



' M.ule iiito Kkali. 



