24 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



August 1. — At Halfway Creek only a very few hundred salmon were to be seen. These were 

 about the two mouths of the stream and spawning along the beach for about 100 yards on each 

 side. There were many dead fish in the creek and along the beach, far advanced in decomposition — 

 much further decomposed than on our previous visit. * * * There appeared to be compara- 

 tively few fish in the creek above the mouth. 



August 8. — Thumb River, where it enters the Thumb, is quite a different looking stream now 

 as compared with two weeks ago. Comparatively few fish were to be seen, though the shore on 

 each side of the mouth of the river was covered with carcasses in advanced stages of decay. * * * 

 Many dead salmon are to be seen all along the shores of the lake, even where, for a mile or so, no 

 spawning had been in progress. 



August 4- — In the streams at the head of the lake comparatively few live salmon were to be 

 seen, even in Cascade Creek, O'Malley River, and Falls Creek; but dead carcasses lined the shore 

 at the head of the lake, though in places remote from any spawning areas. Along the shores of 

 Camp Island there were dead salmon, averaging about one every 10 feet, and at places more abun- 

 dant than that. 



August 5. — On a visit to the foot of the lake it was noted that live salmon were scarce, as usual, 

 but there were many dead ones. The shore all along the foot of the lake, from Spring Creek to the 

 outlet, was thickly covered with decayed remains of spawned-out salmon and with the skins and 

 bones left after the myriads of blowflies had done their work. 



August 6. — There were only about 100 fish spawning in Little Lagoon Creek, although the lagoon 

 was literally choked with dead salmon. 



August 7. — Moraine Creek was explored for about 1 mile. There were lots of dead salmon as 

 far as we went, but very few live fish— probably not more than 1,500 to 2,000 in the whole creek. 

 There were salmon still above the highest point we reached, but the creek became much steeper 

 within the next few hundred yards. We estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 fish had spawned here up 

 to this date. 



August 8. — A new run of fish was noted in O'Malley River. These were clean and bright, 

 and many had not yet acquired the bright red spawning dress. Only a few of the earlier run re- 

 mained alive, * * * the vast majority of the tremendous numbers we saw three weeks ago were 

 dead and their carcasses rapidly disintegrating. There were several thousand of these fresh-run 

 salmon along the foot of O'Malley Lake. They were in shallow water but were not spawning. A 

 few dead females observed in O'Malley River and along the foot of O'Malley Lake were quite green, 

 and it was evident that the new run was not yet ready for spawning. 



About 1,000 fish were schooled in Karluk Lake, just outside the mouth of O'Malley River. 

 Arjout the same number were schooled off the mouth of Canyon Creek, and a few were in the creek 

 itself. The same conditions were noted in Falls Creek, Cascade Creek, and Meadow Creek, which 

 contained a few live fish, apparently mainly of a fresh run, and multitudes of dead salmon piled up 

 in great masses against the larger bowlders, lining the banks, and rapidly disintegrating under the 

 influence of decay and blowflies. Fish were spawning along the beach at the head of the lake. 



This fresh run of fish was apparently the beginning of the second heavy run into the Karluk 

 River. This run begins late in July, and in one day some 37,000 had been counted through the 

 upper weir, located at the Larsen Bay portage, just a few days before these were seen at the lake. 

 During the last few days of June and most of July the average daily escapement had been less 

 than 10,000. Confirming this interpretation is the fact that the new run, wherever noticed, was 

 composed of fish that were distinctly larger than the fish that entered Karluk River in June and 

 spawned during July. The careful measurements made of daily samples of fish taken at the mouth of 

 the river show clearly this increase in size. (See the section entitled "Analyses of Recent Runs.") 



August 9. — In Thumb River there were only a few thousand live fish left in the whole system. 

 * * * A few fish, apparently of the new run, were to be seen about the mouth of the river, in 

 Thumb Lake, and in the stream itself, but there was no great showing of live fish anywhere. Only 

 at one place in the upper river, where a short stream entered from a large spring, were the fish at all 

 thickly schooled, but even here there were only a few hundred. 



August 14- — About 100 fish, apparently newly arrived, were seen off the mouth of Moraine 

 Creek. 



