188 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
in the maps, Figures 1 to 3. Its shore line is very irregular, as several deep, narrow 
fiords or bays in the western and northern parts extend inland to the active glaciers 
which fill the valleys of the coast range of mountains. The eastern part of the sound 
also has numerous bays, but none is touched directly by glaciers, although some of the 
streams are discolored by glacial water from the ice fields a few miles back from the 
coast, as in the Valdez Arm section. Although beach areas are very limited in the 
eastern bays, the shores are less precipitous. For the most part, the streams in the 
eastern section are clear and flow over gravel bottoms through small valleys and 
meadowlands and provide excellent spawning grounds for salmon. No large rivers 
are tributary to any part of the sound. The lakes of the region are also small and 
few in number, while the streams are short, not more than a few miles in length at 
Figure 1.— Map of the southwestern part of Prince William Sound 
most. Conditions, therefore, are not favorable for red salmon though a few streams 
produce small runs of this species, notably Eshamy, Miners River, Coghill River, 
Billys Hole, Jackpot Bay, and Port Valdez, all but one of which are located in the 
western section. The sound is predominantly a pink-salmon district, although fair 
catches of chums have been made in late years. 
In early years, fishing records were not kept with a view of showing precisely the 
locality in which catches were made, so information that would now be useful in this 
review is not obtainable. For that reason errors in the allocation of these early 
catches have been unavoidable — errors that can not be corrected. In later years, 
catch records were more carefully kept, and many of the defects of the past were 
largely eliminated. 
