SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA SALMON STATISTICS 
465 
western Fisheries Co. Not even a closely similar catch of kings was ever made before 
or has since been made in that locality, and there is no stream near Cape Spencer that 
could be expected to produce that number of king salmon. No satisfactory explana- 
tion of this unusual catch can be given; it may possibly have been made by trollers 
operating in the vicinity of Cape Spencer, or the name of the locality may have been 
incorrectly reported. The most reasonable explanation, however, seems to be that 
the catch came from Alsek River. Various other irregularities in the data from this 
locality make it apparent that they are not to be considered as reliable. 
Taylor Bay, the first indentation of the mainland east of Cape Spencer, produces 
chiefly red salmon. It is a gill-net fishery, due to the roily condition of the water 
which is caused by the drainage from Brady Glacier. Available records indicate that 
fishing began here in 1904 with a catch of 20,000 red salmon and continued with few 
interruptions during the period covered by this report. The data are peculiar on 
account of their extreme irregularity, which is unusual in a record that extends over 
as long a period of time as does this. It seems very unlikely that the great fluctua- 
tions in catch reflect abundance, and one can only conclude that the record is so 
faulty that any attempt at analysis would be useless. 
Port Althorp indents the north shore of Chichagof Island a few miles east of 
Lisianski Inlet. A saltery was located there in 1893 and packed 600 barrels of 
salmon, presumably reds. No further operations in this locality were reported until 
1905. In that year a few thousand pinks were caught. The bay was not fished again 
until 1908, nor does it appear that any salmon were taken from it in 1911 and 1912. 
The record is unbroken from 1913 to 1927, large catches being reported in some of 
the earlier years of this period. A cannery was built on the west shore of Port Althorp 
in 1918, but the catches from that year on never closely approached the yield in the 
years just preceding except in 1921 when 72,873 red salmon were reported as coming 
from those waters — much the largest catch of reds ever recorded. More salmon were 
taken in Port Althorp in 1916 than in any other year, the peak of production affecting 
cohos, chums, and pinks. The banner year for reds, as just noted, came 5 years later, 
while the largest take of kings was recorded in 1917. The “big years” at Port 
Althorp were 1915, 1916, and 1917. In 1916, a catch of 733,429 salmon was reported 
from this bay. After 1918, good catches were made but they averaged far below the 
levels of the preceding decade. There are no apparent cycles in the catches of any 
species, even the 2-year cycle in the runs of pinks, as observed in some localities in 
central Alaska, being lacking. These conclusions are of course based upon the 
assumption that the data are reliable and that all salmon shown as coming from 
Port Althorp were actually caught in that bay and not in Cross Sound or some other 
outside locality. The catches of kings from 1916 to 1920 were probably made by 
trollers operating in Cross Sound or nearby ocean waters and were packed or mild- 
cured at Port Althorp. Catches made at Georges Island in 1926 were merged with 
Port Althorp catches for that year. 
Cross Sound properly includes Three Hill Island, the Inian Islands, Lemesurier 
Island, and some localities on the mainland shore between Cape Spencer and Point 
Carolus, several of which are merely trap locations. Data for these several localities 
are given in table 2 under the proper names of all localities which were considered 
sufficiently important to warrant separate treatment. Several other localities were 
fished occasionally; but the catches were usually small, evidently representing a single 
seine haul or the results of trap fishing for one season only. These catches were com- 
bined with those reported from Cross Sound and cover the following places: Salt 
