Salmonidz 87 
claimed that since the establishment of Callbreath’s hatchery 
on Etolin Island there has been a notable increase of the salmon 
tun in the various streams of Prince of Wales Island on the 
opposite side of Clarence Straits. But this statement, while 
largely current among the cannerymen, and not improbable, 
needs verification. 
We shall await with much interest the return of the thou- 
sands of salmon hatched in 1902 in Naha stream. We may 
venture the prophecy that while a large percentage will return 
to Loring, many others will enter Yes Bay, Karta Bay, Moira 
Sound, and other red-salmon waters along the line of their 
return from Dixon Entrance or the open sea. 
Salmon-packing.—The canning of salmon, that is, the packing 
of the flesh in tin cases, hermetically sealed after boiling, was 
begun on the Columbia River by the Hume Brothers in 1866. 
In 1874 canneries were established on the Sacramento River, 
in 1876 on Puget Sound and on Frazer River, and in 1878 in 
Alaska. At first only the quinnat salmon was packed; after- 
wards the red salmon and the silver salmon, and finally the 
humpback, known commercially as pink salmon. In most 
cases the flesh is packed in one-pound tins, forty-eight of 
which constitute a case. The wholesale price in 1903 was for 
quinnat salmon $5.60 per case, red salmon $4.00, silver salmon 
$2.60, humpback salmon $2.00, and dog-salmon $1.50. It costs 
in round numbers $2.00 to pack a case of salmon. The very 
low price of the inferior brands is due to overproduction. 
The output of the salmon fishery of the Pacific coast amounts 
to about fifteen millions per year, that of Alaska constituting 
seven to nine millions of this amount. Of this amount the red 
salmon constitutes somewhat more than half, the quinnat about 
four-fifths of the rest. 
In almost all salmon streams there is evidence of considerable 
diminution in numbers, although the evidence is sometimes 
conflicting. In Alaska this has been due to the vicious custom, 
now done away with, of barricading the streams so that the 
fish could not reach the spawning grounds, but might be all 
taken with the net. In the Columbia River the reduction 
in numbers is mainly due to stationary traps and salmon- 
wheels, which leave the fish relatively little chance to reach the 
