Dec. 11, 1890. j 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



417 



ICE FISHING IN ARCTIC ALASKA. 



THE little cod of the polar seas, although a pigmy 

 compared witli the true cod of the Grand Banks and 

 George's, stands to the Esquimaux in as important a 

 relation as its bigger relative to the people of New Eng- 

 land. As this fish is one of the subjects of a communica- 

 tion from a valued correspondent, we present first a 

 sketch of its distribution and the brief record of its life 

 history. The polar cod, called in Capt. Herendeen's letter 

 the tomcod, is the polar coalfish of Eichardson and the 

 saida cod of the "Fishery Industries." Greenlanders know 

 it as the inisarlcornak. 



The polar cod inhabits tho region around the North 

 Pole. It is recorded from Archangel, Nova Zenibla, 

 Spitsbergen and Greenland. In the White Sea it is very 

 abundant, being captured there, according to Coliett, in 

 great numbers and sold in Archangel. 



This fish does not appear to have been taken in Alaska 

 south of St. Michael's. In Plover Bay, Siberia, we found 

 it sufficiently common in August and September. The 

 species is very common in Arctic waters of the east 

 coast of North America. Mr. Ludwig Kumlien found it 

 in Cumberland Gulf in January, 1878. He states that it 

 forms tbe principal food of one of the Greenland seals in 

 the winter. On Sir Edward Parry's first voyage it was 

 taken among the surface ice in Baffin's Bay, and on his 

 second voyage multitudes of the fish were collected from 

 rocky pools in Duke of York's Bay, Southampton Island, 

 where they had been left by the ebb tide. In Prince 

 Regent's Inlet Parry found it equally 

 common during his third voyage. Sir 

 John Ross took it abundantly in Batty 

 Bay in July and occasionally in winter 

 in Felix Harbor-. Parry found the polar 

 cod as far north as latitude 82f 3 in abund- 

 ance in small bays at the mouths of 

 fresh-water streams. Richardson records 

 it as a common winter inhabitant of the 

 northern bays of Greenland, 



Lucien M. Turner, writing of his ex- 

 perience in Alaska, has the following 

 about the species: 



"The specimens of Arctic cod collected 

 by me were obtained in the latter part 

 Of February, 1877, the coldest month 

 during a nearly four years stay at St. 

 Michaels. Some natives had made holes 

 in the ice in the bay and were fishing 

 through these holes when I visited them 

 and obtained several specimens. This 

 species was not observed at any other 

 than the winter season. The natives in- 

 formed me that they only occur in winter. 

 They were obtained in about 3£ fathoms." 



Mr. E. W*. Nelson, who is also a well- 

 known Alaskan explorer, collected speci- 

 mens late in November on Norton Sound, 

 where it was abundant for a few days in 

 company with the imchna, a small cod 

 known in the books as the Gaclusnavaga. 

 Natives told Nelson that the polar cod 

 occurs every year on one portion of Norton 

 Sound, but is rarely taken at St. Michaels. 



The length of the polar cod is said to 

 reach a maximum of 14in. ; the average 

 length, however, is about lfc, and the 

 weight less than \\b. 



The fish, according to Richardson, 

 spawns on sea weeds along the shores in 

 February and under the ice. 



On the 19th of August, a little above 

 the Arctic Circle, not far from the coast 

 of Alaska, while sailine along in the 

 Coast Survey schooner Yukon, Dr. Bean 

 saw large numbers of swimming jelly 

 fishes, very much like the common sun 

 jelly (Cya'nea) of the Atlantic, and under 

 the jelly fishes were frequently seen small 

 fish, of which we caught a great many 

 with a dip-net. We found these fish to 

 be the young of the polar cod. Tlr's 

 little fish was as common under the me- 

 dusae, as the young butterfish of the 

 Atlantic (Poronotus iriacantliua) is under 

 the jelly fishes in all the quiet bays of 

 New England. 



Prof. Robert Coliett, in describing the 

 fishes of the Norwegian deep sea ex- 

 pedition, records tbe following facts con- 

 cerning the species: 



"The individuals obtained on the ex- 

 pedition, contrary to the experience of 

 former observers, were taken in Ihe intermedial 

 strata of the cce^n, having on no occasion been 

 met at or near the surface. In Magdalene Bay 

 seventy-two individuals, ail of them young, the total 

 length averaging about 100 millimeters [4in.], were 

 brought up together in the trawl net, showing beyond 

 doubt that this species, in common with its congeners, 

 moves in shoals; but the animal remains found in the, 



shoals. In summer he found attached to the gills a par- 

 asite similar to the one referred to by Coliett. "The polar 

 coalfish," he writes, "is of so curious a disposition that 

 it is readily attracted to the surface by agitating the 

 water, especially in the evening. Sometimes it leaps 

 upon the ice, when it becomes the prey of the Arctic 

 fox, which lies in wait for such a chance, and is even 



polar con. 



said to know how to bring about this desired event by 

 stirring the water with his foot through a crevice. The 

 Greenlanders take it in a similar way with their hands, 

 having learned the art, according to Fabricius, from the 

 fox," 



Captain E. P. Herendeen, the well-known Arctic 

 traveler, and member of the Signal Service party at Point 

 Barrow from 1881 to 1888, promised us in the spring of 



ESQUIMAUX FISH SPEAR. 



viscera of the specimens examined belonged chiefly (in 

 some instances exclusively) to Calarms finmarchicus, 

 or consisted of fragments of Themisto libellula, along 

 with Calani, accordingly pelagic forms, occurring at all 

 depths, from the surface to the bottom." 



On the gills of one specimen was found an example of 

 a Hcemobaphes: two other small parvsitic crustaceans 

 had attached themselves to the skin of the same indi- 

 vidual." 



Richardson mentions the polar cod, or coal fish, as the 

 principal nourishment of the sea fowl which frecpientthe 

 Arctic regions in summer, its habit of swimming at the 

 top of the water making it extremely easy of capture. 

 He includes the beluga, or white whale, among its 

 enemies, since this animal drives the fish upon the ice in 



ESQUIMAUX BOY JIGGING POLAR COD. 



1889, when he was about to start on a whaling expedition 

 to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, that he would give 

 to Forest and Stream some observations on the animals 

 encountered in his Arctic journeyings. The Captain was 

 at Point Barrow during the winter of 1889-90, out could 

 not remain in the Arctic because of failing health and 

 was obliged to return to San Francisco, from which place 

 he has forwarded the following interesting letter: 



"I am back in San Francisco one year sooner than I 

 expected. My health was not good and I thought I had 

 better return and not hazard another winter in the north. 

 We did not get east to Herschell Island as we hopf d to do, 

 consequently I cannot give you any information in regard 

 to the fishes of that region, although I am informed by 

 natives who have lived in the vicinity of the Mackenzie 

 River that fish are very plentiful and of many varieties. 

 They also tell me of a lake that is fed by a stream flowing 

 from a mountain, and that the temperature of this stream 

 is so high that the ice does not freeze to a greater depth 

 than six to ten inches, and often in moderate weather 

 melts entirely. In this lake there are many varieties of 

 fish wh'ctican easily be taken there with hook or spear; 

 as many as desired, and, in fact, according to the report, 

 it must be an Indian paradise about there, since fish, rein- 

 deer and mountain sheep are very abundant. Ptarmigan 

 are plentiful in winter and ducks and geese in summer. 

 In the sea there are whales and beluga in great numbers, 

 and seals, also, are plentiful. No doubt if I had got there 

 I could have sent you a pretty good account of the fish to 

 be found, together with specimens. 



"We were unable to get east of Point Barrow and con- 

 sequently were obliged to winter at that place, in Elson 

 Bay. No fish are taken there in winter except tomcod. 

 These are jigged along the coast in from 10 to 15 fathoms 



of water. They are caught mostly by the women and 

 children. Fishing is done through holes in the ice, which 

 is from 4 to Oft. in thickness. The ice pick represented 

 in the sketch is used for drilling holes. It is a piece of 

 pointed iron fastened upon a wooden shaft. The spoon, 

 about o^in, long, made of two thin pieces of reindeer 

 horn, curved into suitable shape and fastened to a wooden 

 handle about 2ft. in length, is used to clear the surface 

 water in the hole of scum ice. The natives use a whale- 

 bone line made from strips of baleen, which they are very 

 expert in getting out of the required size. With this line 

 they can fish in any temperature, often 40° below zero. 

 A line made of this material does not ice up like a twisted 

 line of cotton or linen. They never put their hands to 

 the line in cold weather, bat haul it in with the stick on 

 which they reel the line and the spoon used for keeping 

 the hole clear of ice. With these two implements they 

 raise the fish and lower the line, and they do this with 

 wonderful rapidity. 



' 'A gill-net used by the Esquimaux for taking small white- 

 fish and salmon trout is very skillfully made by months 

 of hard labor. The net is 12 fathoms long and 1 fathom 

 deep; it is made of strips of bone from yearling whales. 



"The fish spear or native grains I was assured is very 

 old. I obtained it from an old doctor, who was very 

 loath to part with it, and I think there is no doubt about 

 the age of this implement, because in these latter days 

 the Esquimaux have plenty of iron and steel, and this 

 spear is made of bone. It was used in the capture of 

 fresh-water fishes. 



"During the past spring whaling was 

 unprecedentedly bad. Only one whale 

 of any size having been taken on the 

 entire coast and none on the Siberian 

 coast or St. Lawrence's Island." 



In a paper read before the American 

 Fisheries Society in May, 1884, Mr. John 

 Murdoch gave a description of fish and 

 fishing at Point Barrow, Arctic Alaska, 

 based upon his observations two years 

 preceding among the Esquimaux of the 

 region. In this article he gave a sketch 

 of the fishes used for food and the meth- 

 ods employed in capturing them. After 

 describing the hunting and fishing of the 

 natives, who go off to the large rivers 

 to the eastward to catch whitefish and 

 burbot, he tells in the following language 

 how those who stay at home obtain their 

 supplies of fish food: "In the meantime 

 those who have remained at home have 

 not been without a supply of fish food. 

 There is a small species of codfish, the 

 polar cod (Boreogadiis saida), which ap- 

 pears along the coast in large schools 

 about the end of January, or when the 

 sun again begins to rise. We were unable 

 to find out whether the fish really leaves 

 the coast to return in January, but at all 

 events the Esquimaux do not fish for 

 them until then and say there are none 

 to be found. They would be likely to 

 fish for them were any to be caught, 

 because just at this season of the year 

 they are apt to be pinched for food, as no 

 deer are to be had, and if the ice happens 

 to be unfavorable seals are very scarce. 



"Wherever there is a level field of this 

 season's ice inclosed by lines of hum- 

 mocks, the fish are sure to be plenty. 

 Such a field as this, about half a mile 

 long, practically afforded a living to most 

 of the people in the village during the 

 season of 1883, because that year the ice 

 was very unfavorable for sealing, and 

 food was pretty scarce in the village. 



"The fishing is carried on mostly by 

 the women and children, though one or 

 two old men generally go out, and one 

 or two of the younger men, when they 

 cannot go sealing and food is wanted at 

 the house, will join the fishing party. 



"Each fisherman is provided with a 

 long-handled icepick, which he frequently 

 leaves sticking in the snow near the fish- 

 ing ground, a long line made of strips of 

 whalebone, reeled lengthwise on a slender 

 wooden shuttle about I8in. long and pro- 

 vided with a copper sinker and two pear- 

 shaped 'jigs' of w^alrus ivory armed with 

 four baroiess hooks of copper, and a scoop 

 or dipper made of reindeer antlers, with 

 a wooden handle about two feet long. 

 Hardly an Esquimaux, and especially no Esquimaux boy, 

 stirs out of the house in the winter without one of these 

 scoops in his hand. To every party of two or three there 

 will also be a good-sized bag of sealskin, generally made 

 of a piece of an old kayak cover, for bringing home the 

 fish. Arriving at the fishing grounds each proceeds to 

 pick a hole through the ice, which is about 4ft. thick, 

 clearing out the chips with the scoop. The 'jigs' are 



POLAR coo JIU. 



then let down through the hole, and enough line unreeled 

 to keep them just clear of the bottom where the fish are 

 playing about. The reel is held in the right hand and 

 serves as a short rod, while the scoop is held in the left 

 hand and used to keep the hole clear of the scum of new 

 ice, which, of course, is constantly forming. The line is 

 kept in constant motion, jerked up quickly a short dis- 

 tance, and then allowed to drop back, so that the little 

 fish that are nosing about the white 'jigs' after the man- 

 ner of codfish, are hooked about the jaw or in the belly. 



"As soon as the fisherman feels a fish on his hook he 

 catches up a bight of the line with his scoop and another 

 below this with his reel and thus reels up the line on 

 these two sticks in loose coils until the fish is brought to 

 the surface, when a skillful toss throws him off the Tbarb- 



