56 BULLETIN 150, IT. s. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
islands and circuitous fiords and arms of the sea. While the length 
of the shore line, relatively speaking, is enormous, the actual dis- 
tances from point to point are not great. Thus the entire area 
of this portion of territory is about 25,500 square miles, which is 
about the area of the States of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massa- 
chusetts. 1 Of the amount of kelp surveyed, groves containing 
2,880,000 tons are regarded as easily available, the availability being 
estimated on the basis of quietness of water and freedom from rocks 
and other obstructions to navigation. 
The kelp of this region has been grouped around eight centers, 
which are: 
1. Port McArthur, near the south end of Kuiu Island. 
2. Shakan Bay, on Sumner Strait. 
3. Tyee, near Point Gardner. 
1. Duke Island, possibly inside the Vegas Islands. 
5. Saginaw Bay, at the north end of Kuiu Island. 
6. Warren Cove, on Warren Island. 
7. Barrier Island, between Cape Chacon and Cape Muzon. 
8. Bay of Pillars, on Chatham Strait. 
These points have been selected by Prof. Frye from the viewpoint 
of amounts of available kelp and convenience of harbor. 
In this region, as well in western Alaska, large and heavy groves 
of Alaria fstulosa occur. This is a kelp which attains great size, 
but carries only a small proportion of potash. Its nitrogen content 
is correspondingly high, but not high enough to make it of equal 
commercial importance with the other two species. 
The kelps of western Alaska so far mapped (by Prof. G. B. Rigg, 
of the University of Washington, during the summer of 1913) con- 
tain about 3,500,000 tons of green kelp, the estimate being based on 
the supposition that the kelp would be cut about 5 feet beneath the 
surface. The species' included are both Nereocystis and Alaria. " Of 
this, 1,251,200 tons are in beds of pure Nereocystis ; 1,457,300 tons are 
in beds of mixed Nereocystis and Alaria. 2 
Large kelp beds are within easy reach of the harbors of Port 
Graham, Seldovia, Kodiak, and Alitak, on Olga Bay. 
COMPOSITION. 
The composition of the kelps here is considered only from the point 
of view of their fertilizer value. In the following tables are given 
the respective composition of a number of samples of Nereocystis 
1 From the report of Dr. T. C. Frye on the Kelps of Southeastern Alaska, Rept. 100, 
U. S. Dept. of Agr., Part IV. 
2 G. B. Rigg, report on the Kelps of Western Alaska, ibid., Part V. 
