SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA SALMON STATISTICS 
481 
and pinks reported from “Barnes Bay” which was presumably intended for “Berners 
Bay.” 
Many deficiencies exist in respect of the details of catches at Chilkat and Chilkoot 
Rivers. No information is available showing the catches at these rivers before 1904, 
yet fishing was carried on in both localities from 1883 to 1903. As mentioned above, 
these data appear in table 3 as unallocated catches. Even in subsequent years, 
catches were made at these rivers and reported merely as coming from Lynn Canal. 
Such faulty data are obviously not subject to detailed analysis, and it has been 
necessary to limit the study of the data to the total catches in Lynn Canal as a whole 
rather than those of any subdivision of the district. This procedure is not entirely 
satisfactory since not all of the salmon taken in the southern part of Lynn Canal came 
from runs to those waters; some were unquestionably destined to the tributaries of 
the northern part of Stephens Passage and mingled with the runs of Lynn Canal along 
the shore of Mansfield Peninsula; but, in a general way, the total figures will show the 
development and present status of the fishery. 
The Chilkat catches include salmon reported from “Chilkat and Chilkoot Inlets 
and Lynn Canal” in 1909 and 1921; from “Chilkat and Lynn Canal” in 1923; and 
from “Kalhagu Cove, Kelgayu Bay, and Pyramid Harbor” in 1924. Chilkoot 
catches include fish from “Lynn Canal and Chilkoot Inlet” in 1907; from “Chilkat 
and Chilkoot Inlets and Lynn Canal” in 1909; from “Chilkoot Pass” in 1923; from 
“Chilkoot and Mud Bay” in 1923; and from “Flat Bay, Portage Cove and Tanani 
Bay” in 1924. The unallocated catches include, in addition to the early records, 
fish reported from “Icy Strait and Lynn Canal” in 1919; from “Lynn Canal and Icy 
Strait” in 1904; from “Lynn Canal and Chilkoot Inlet” in 1907; from “Chilkat 
and Chilkoot Inlets and Lynn Canal” in 1909 and 1921; from “Chilkat and Lynn 
Canal” in 1923; from “Chatham Strait and Lynn Canal” in 1912, 1914, and 1919; 
from “Lynn Canal and Stephens Passage” in 1923 and 1927; from Point Howard 
in 1926; and from “Salt Lake” in 1905. 
The Chilkat and Chilkoot Rivers are the main source of the runs of red salmon 
entering Cross Sound. These runs were the first that were exploited in the northern 
section of southeastern Alaska and were eventually fished far from the streams of their 
origin. It is important to keep this point in mind in considering the size and condition 
of the Lynn Canal red-salmon runs. No record showing separately the catch at these 
two rivers before 1904 is available, nor is it certain that the later catches were accu- 
rately segregated. In many instances they were reported only as coming from Lynn 
Canal. It seems advisable therefore to confine this analysis to the total catch of red 
salmon in the Lynn Canal district rather than to undertake consideration of the data 
for each locality separately. 
Figure 15 shows graphically the catch and the trend of the catch of red salmon in 
Lynn Canal for a period of 45 years. There was a gradual building up of catches 
until about 1904 at which time the exploitation of the fisheries in the Icy Strait dis- 
trict began; but from that year to the end of the period the story is one of a steady 
decline. On the same graph is shown the catch and trend of the catch of red salmon 
in Icy Strait; and it is quite apparent that, as the catch increased in Icy Strait, it 
declined in Lynn Canal. The effect of this shift of the fishery and the change from 
gill nets and seines to traps was immediately reflected in the poorer catches at C hil kat 
and Chilkoot Rivers and soon resulted in the permanent closing of the first canneries 
located on Chilkat Inlet. Although the catch after 1924 was undoubtedly affected 
by new regulations, it is not likely that there would have been much increase in the 
