220 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
Besides those professionally engaged in the cod fishery there are at least two thousand adult 
males in the Territory of Alaska who derive part of their subsistence from codfish either fresh or 
dried. These men are estimated only for the parishes of Unalashka, Belkoffsky, and Kodiak, and 
the coast from Mount Saint Elias to Cape Fox, the number being based upon figures in Petroff’s 
preliminary report to the Census Bureau. There is at present no means of knowing how many 
cod are consumed by natives of the regions in which they abound, but the number must be very 
great. The bidarkas at Iliuliuk, referred to previously, brought in daily from 15 to 25 cod 
each. Skulls of this fish have been picked up on the beaches by hundreds ata time. My own 
observation of the fish-drying frames was made in the height of the salmon fishing, and, of course, 
salmon predominated over everything else. Wherever we went in the limits of cod we saw more 
or less hanging up drying without salt. Wherever the native gear has not been superseded by: 
that of the white fishermen lines of bark or of kelp are used. The Indians of the Hoochenoo” 
region have barbless iron hooks and bark lines. Two of them go off in a canoe, each one having 
for his portion all the fish he catches. The two will catch from 25 to 50 cod in the time spent in 
fishing each day. So far as I know trawl-lines are not used by any one except the professional 
fishermen. 
5. APPARATUS AND METHODS OF FISHING. 
THE FISHING GEAR.—In the earlier years of the Shumagin fishery hand-lines alone were used 
for catching cod. The use of trawls, according to Capt. Andrew Anderson, began there in 1869. 
In 1874 one vessel used trawls. In 1875 the Dashing Wave was the only one fishing with them. 
Since that time they have been extensively employed, so much so that one correspondent declares 
that they have made the fish less plentiful than they were five years ago. The Wild Gazelle uses 
hand-lines altogether; the Unga, hand-lines and trawls. The gear of the Unga and the Nagay, 
20-ton schooners, for the season of 1879 cost $362 each. This includes dories, hand-lines, hooks 
and leads, trawl-lines, hooks, buoy-lines, anchors, buoys, and tubs. 
Some of the dories used in the cod-fishery were bought in the East; others are made in San 
Francisco. The Beckwith dories are essentially like those of Cape Ann in shape and structure, 
but the materials are different; sugar pine and fir are used, and the rails are oak. A 16-foot 
Beckwith dory costs $27.50 without the oars. The average cost of dories in San Francisco is $25. 
Hooks and all other outfit, except dories, hawsers, and food, come from the East. 
Bait.—The item of bait has never been an expensive one for the San Francisco fleet. In the 
earlier years of the fishery salted herrings were the principal dependence, and a vessel of 100 tons 
required about $100 worth of this kind of bait, according to Davidson. Cutts’s estimate is $100 
worth of herring for a vessel of 200 tons. As late as 1879 salt herring were still relied on to some 
extent, but most of the bait was obtained on the fishing-grounds. In 1876 the fleet used salted 
clams in part, the main supply coming from Puget Sound. Davidson, in the Coast Pilot of Alaska, 
1869, says that his party “fished with clams, the Schizotherus nuttallii, obtained at Port Simpson 
on our way up; but there are plenty of small fish, herring, clams, &c., suitable for bait, in all the 
harbors along the coast. The clam hangs best to the hook.” There is no lack of fresh bait 
throughout the fishing-area, Fine clams are exceedingly abundant at the Shumagins and at Sitka 
and Cook’s Inlet. Herring (Clupea mirabilis) are found in great numbers on the whole coast of 
Alaska as far north as Hotham Inlet, being particularly abundant in Prince Frederick Sound, 
Cook’s Inlet, around Kodiak Island, and generally in all cod-areas. Captain Bowen told me that 
on the 7th of July, 1880, off Ugak Bay, while sailing at the rate of about 4 knots per hour he 
passed through herring-schools for four hours in succession. “ Lant” (Ammodytes personatus) are 
