44 SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



the fish are washed and rubbed clean with a broom they are placed in a perforated 

 box and wheeled on a truck to the salting house. For the first salting one-half sack 

 of salt is used for a barrel of salmon; the fish remain in the first pickle about a week; 

 for repacking one sack of salt is needed for three barrels of 200 pounds each. The 

 fish are washed in the pickle and rubbed clean with a scrub-brush before repacking. 



TRANSPORTATION AND MARKETS. 



Elsewhere will be found a statement to the effect that sixty-six vessels were 

 engaged during the season of 1889 in the Alaskan salmon trade. The products of the 

 fisheries are consigned to the agents of the companies, in San Francisco, Astoria, and 

 Portland, who dispose of them in foreign markets, principally in England. 



FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION. 



The fishermen of Kadiak as a rule receive $40 a month, and board and lodging, for 

 their work, besides $5 a thousand for the fish they catch. They are carried to Alaska 

 and back without expense to themselves. I have been informed that the average 

 earnings of the fishermen for six months are about $300. Most of the work in the can- 

 neries is done by Chinese, whose services are obtained by contract witli their agents 

 in San Francisco. The information in my hands respecting the value of vessels, 

 boats, apparatus, etc., does not cover the ground sufficiently to present it in this 

 place. 



THE FISHERMEN. 



The number of native fishermen employed at Kadiak is very small. At Karluk one 

 of the companies, the Karluk Packing Company, has about twenty of the natives for 

 one of its seining gangs, but their work is not so satisfactory as that of the white men. 

 It is said to be very difficult to keep the natives engaged. At Afognak many of the 

 natives are employed about the canneries as carpenters. They are engaged, also, in 

 making boats of various kinds and their labor in this direction is appreciated The 

 presence of the canneries has not diminished the fish supply of the natives as far as I 

 could learn; it is really easier for them to obtain what they need for winter use than 

 it was before the opening of the canneries. The natives, however, had nets, seines, 

 and other appliances for catching fish before the white men came among them. If 

 the supply of fish should become exhausted by overfishing or any other cause, the 

 effect would be to starve the natives in all localities in which fish is the principal food 

 supply; but if they are sufficiently interested in their own welfare to work for a living, 

 they can get more salmon now than they could before the days of canneries, and will 

 receive good wages and be well supplied with provisions. One great source of trouble 

 with the natives is caused by the illegal sale of intoxicants by the Chinese and, occa- 

 sionally, some Americans. This traffic is the means of destroying the usefulness of 

 the people and renders them more liable to pulmonary diseases. 



Most of the work in the canneries, as already stated, is done by Chinese ; the su- 

 perintendents and other principal men about the canneries are mainly Americans. 

 Among the fishermen may be found Americans, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, 

 Sicilians, and Negroes. 



