CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ALASKA. 101 



23498 b. D. 13 ; A. 14 ; V. 3 ; P. 33 ; C. 31 ; B. 7-8. Length 200 mm . 

 23498 c. D. 14 ; A. 15 ; V. 3 ; P. 33 ; C. 31 ; B. 8. Length 180™". 

 23498 d. D. 14 ; A. 14 ; V. 3; P. 33 ; C. 30 ; B. 7-8. Length 184"™. 

 23498 e. D. 13 ; A. 14 ; V. 3 ; P. 35 ; C. 30 ; B. 8. Length 175"™. 

 23498/. D. 14; A. 14 ; V. 3 ; P. 35 ; C.30; B. 8. Length 170"™. 

 23498 g. D. 13 ; A. 14 ; V. 3 ; P. 35 ; C. 31 ; B. 8. Length 167"™. 



This species is probably the most abundant of all the fishes which occur in the fresh and 

 brackish waters of the northern part of Alaska. It is known to the whites as " Black-fish," to the 

 Russian-speaking population as " Ohornia Reeba," and to the Eskimo as E mang nkP 



It is found in all the small streams of the low grounds, in the wet morasses and sphagnum- 

 covered areas, which are soaked with water and which at times seem to contain but sufficient water 

 to more than moisten the skin of the fish. Iu the low grounds or tundra are many, countless 

 thousands, small ponds of very slight depth, connected with each other by small streams of 

 variable width, of few feet to those so narrow as to be hidden by the overlapping sedges or sphagnum 

 moss. These smaller streams are said to have been made by the muskrats and mink, which travel 

 from pond to pond in search of food. These narrower outlets of the ponds are at certain seasons so 

 full of these fish that they completely block them up. The soft, yielding sphagnum moss above 

 is pushed aside, and under it these fish find a convenient retreat. Here the fish are partially 

 protected from the great cold of winter by the covering of moss and grass. In such situations 

 they collect iu such numbers that figures fail to express an adequate idea of their numbers. 

 They are to be measured by the yard. Their mass is deep according the nature of the retreat. 

 If it is a pond overgrown with sedges and mosses which by their non-conductivity of heat 

 allows only a slight depth to be thawed out in the short Arctic summer, the fish mass will 

 completely fill it up. The natives repair to the places, which are known to be the refuge of 

 these fish,aud set a small trap constructed after the following manner: A number of small splints 

 of spruce wood are carefully bound together so as to make a couical-fonned weir some eight feet 

 in length, the smaller end of which is opened about two to three inches. This communicates with 

 a large basket-shaped trap, which is so placed that when the fish enter the small orifice next the 

 trap they will scarcely find it by which to make their exit. The larger end of the funnel is ten to 

 eighteen inches in diameter and set with the mouth toward the direction from which the mass of fish 

 is moving. The fish push on until the basket is filled, their number prevent those within from 

 moving outward until the whole trap is a mass of living fish. The natives remove the basket every 

 day or two to relieve the pressure on it and to supply their own wants and those of their dogs. 

 Nearly every head of a family has a trap, and during the greater part of the year, from May to 

 December, tons and tons of these fish are daily removed. They form the principal food of the 

 natives living between the Yukon Delta and the Kuskokvim River and as far interior as the bases 

 of the higher hills. North of the Yukon Delta they are also abundant, especially on the sphagnum- 

 covered areas back of Kothlik and Pikmiktalik. The natives sell many of these fish iu baskets 

 (they are sold by the basketful), a few cents paying for about three-fourths of a bushel. When 

 taken from the traps the fish are immediately put into these baskets and taken to the village, where 

 the baskets of fish are placed on stages, or caches, out of the way of the dogs. Here the fish are 

 exposed to the severe temperature and cold winds. The mass of fish iu each basket is frozen in a 

 few minutes; and when required to take them out they have to be chopped out with an ax or 

 beaten with a club to divide them into pieces of sufficient size to be fed to the dogs, or put into the 

 pot to boil. 



The vitality of these fish is astonishing. They will remain iu those grass-baskets for weeks, and 

 when brought iuto the house aud thawed out they will be as lively as ever. The pieces which are 

 thrown to the ravenous dogs are eagerly swallowed ; the animal heat of the dog's stomach thaws 

 the fish out, whereupou its movements soon cause the dog to vomit it up alive. This I have seen, 

 but have heard some even more wonderful stories of this fish. 



The food of these fish has always been a matter of wonder to me, considering the number of 

 fish to be supplied iu the scanty waters where they abouud. 



The contents of several. stomachs were examined aud found to contain only a mass of undis- 

 tinguishable earthy matter, vegetable fragments, and what appeared to be the undigested portions 



