THE COD FISHERY OF ALASKA. 215 
162° 42’, about 20 miles broad off the northwest shore of the Alaska peninsula, he ‘caught a good 
number of fine codfish’ in 30 fathoms. In Bristol Bay and River, emptying into the Behring Sea, 
where salmon were in great abundance, he found that fish ‘in the maws of cod which he had caughts 
In the same bay, southeast (of ) Hagmeister Island, in water of 14 to 26 fathoms, he ‘had tolerably 
successful fishing, catching cod and then a few flat-fish.’? In latitude 61° 48’, longitude 180°, Saint 
Thadeus Nose bearing NNW. about 23 leagues distant, he caught ‘abundance of fine cod’ in 65 to 
75 fathoms water. His successor, King, in September, 1779, in latitude 59° 38’, longitude 1779, 
about 150 miles west by south quarter-south from the island of Saint Mathew, ‘ got a great number 
of cod in 78 fathoms.’” : 
I have already mentioned the capture of cod recorded by Maynard and Elliott at Saint Law- 
rence Island. 
There is, however, no important fishery for cod north of the Aleutian Islands; whether or not 
banks will be discovered and frequented in Bering Sea we are no better prepared to say than were 
the Oape Ann fishermen with reference to George’s Bank half a century ago. It is highly proba- 
ble that fishermen will avoid the dangerous lee of the Fox Islands at least until the Shumagins 
fail to reward their toil. 
THE SHUMAGIN IsLanps.—‘“‘ These islands were discovered by Bering, in his second voyage, 
on the 29th of August, 1741, and were named after one of his crew who died and was buried upon 
one of them. They are situated in longitude 160° west and latitude 55° north, and comprise four 
large and about a dozen small islands, with a total area of about 1,000 square miles. They con- 
tain several Aleutian settlements, and Unga, the largest, has two fine ports, the north and south 
harbors, where wood, water, bait, and fish abound. The banks already discovered exceed in extent 
those of Newfoundland. * * * The voyage to the Shumagins and back occupies about one 
hundred and ten days, a saving of two months and 2,000 miles in time and distance [as compared 
with the Okhotsk fishery], in addition to the facilities for obtaining fresh provisions, wood and 
water, and the proximity of good harbors of refuge in bad weather.”* 
“The winds about the Shumagins * * * from June until the middle of August are from 
the southeast, with rain and fog; and from the middle of August to the middle of September from 
the northwest, with fine weather and smooth water; after which there are heavy southerly gales.”+ 
The islands are generally high and to a great extent clothed with tall grass, scrub alder, and 
a kind of wild apple. The soil is soft and yielding, and walking is usually attended with great 
fatigue and vexation. The bluffs of Popoff Island show porphyritic rocks with varied hues—slate, 
gray, and purplish, and here and there is seen a reddish cliff colored by the oxidation of iron 
pyrites. Winds sweep down -the slopes of these hills with great violence and caprice, sometimes 
capsizing vessels taken unawares. The Nagai, one of McCollam & Co.’s dittle schooners, formerly 
employed with the Unga in fishing for the Pirate Cove station, was lost through the winds or 
“ woollies” in the summer of 1880. 
One of the characteristic birds found about the shores of the islands in the fishing season is 
the pretty little paroquet auk (Phaleris psittacula). Great numbers of gulls, cormorants, auks, 
murres, guillemots, puffins, albatrosses, and jagers may be seen hovering over the water or afloat 
upon it where the surface schools of fish-food congregate. 
In West Nagai Strait we saw the Page and the Wild Gazelle, which, besides the little Unga, 
composed the Shumagin’s cod fleet for 1880. They were lying at anchor near Sanborn Harbor. 
Their dories were out, one man in each, hand-lining and trawling within easy reach of the vessels. 
Trawls were little used, the men depending almost wholly on the hand-lines. 
*Dall in Rep. Comm. Agric. for 1870 (1871), p. 378. 
t Davidson: Alaska Coast Pilot, 1869, p. 43. 
