540 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
in several places very narrow isthmuses. Due to these peculiarities, the streams are 
necessarily short, drain small areas, carry a limited flow of water, and do not main- 
tain large runs of salmon. 
The streams of Kupreanof Island and Prince of Wales Island drain considerably 
larger areas, and under normal conditions, carry a larger volume of water than those 
of Kuiu Island. For the most part they flow through heavily wooded country much 
of which is comparatively flat and marshy. It is not an uncommon thing to find 
streams in these sections that are little more than chains of small lakes. In general 
the streams are somewhat sluggish, gravel bars are not extensive and are found usu- 
ally in the lower reaches. Under such conditions, it would be surprising to find large 
runs of salmon at these localities. Many of the streams, however, are populated 
by red salmon and to a much larger extent by pinks and chums. The catch of cohos 
in the district is relatively small; kings are rarely taken. 
The history of the salmon industry in this district is not well known, and it is 
doubtful just when commercial fishing began. It is certain, however, that sal- 
mon were taken from these waters by the cannery at Redfish Bay as early as 1892. 
A cannery at Point Highfield, near Wrangell, began packing in 1889, and while no 
information is available showing the localities from which its supply of salmon was 
obtained, it is not unlikely that some streams in this district were fished in that year 
and regularly thereafter. Between 1899 and 1903 another cannery was opened at 
Wrangell, three on Wrangell Narrows, and one each at Kell Bay and Shakan, all of 
which undoubtedly took salmon from Sumner Strait. In all cases where definite 
allocations were made, such catches have been included in the statistical data for 
those localities, but after this was done there still remained large unallocated catches 
in several years which could not be given specific allocation. In order that this 
record may be as complete as possible, these catches are shown in table 17. All 
king salmon are omitted, as they can quite properly be included in the Stikine River 
catches. 
Table 17. — Estimated catch of salmon in the Sumner Strait district, 1895 to 1903 
Year 
Coho 
Pink 
Red 
Year 
Coho 
Pink 
Red 
1895 
19, 575 
26, 133 
14, 645 
28,430 
27, 263 
22,487 
90, 069 
108, 861 
72, 268 
152, 536 
33,400 
30, 884 
28! 802 
37, 188 
1900 
33, 345 
44, 037 
33, 300 
385, 322 
1, 216, 542 
1, 448, 371 
899, 638 
130, 098 
151, 873 
122, 514 
138, 807 
1896. — - 
1901 
1897 
1902 
1898 
1903 
In addition to these estimates, red and coho salmon were taken by certain com- 
panies and definitely allocated to streams. These data are given in table 18 under 
the respective years for the following localities: Red Bay, Point Barrie, Shipley Bay, 
and Kah Sheets Bay. 
The Sumner Strait district embraces 44 localities where considerable catches of 
salmon have been made, 10 of which are on the Kuiu Island shore, 14 on the shore of 
Prince of Wales Island, 7 on the Kupreanof shore, 3 on the Mitkof shore, 4 on the 
Coronation and Warren Islands, 5 on Kosciusko Island, and 1 on Zarembo Island. 
All of these places are shown on either Chart No. 8152 or No. 8200 of the U.S. Coast 
and Geodetic Survey. Several of them were trap locations, while in others both 
traps and seines were used. In the first category are Point Amelius, Point Baker, 
Colpoys Bay, Point Colpoys, Cape Decision, Point Hardscrabble, Pine Point, Cape 
