554 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
not important. Trout Creek is another locality on the west coast of Kosciusko 
Island, where good catches of pink salmon were made in some years. The record is 
discontinuous, however, and considerable doubt exists that these larger catches were 
taken at the stream. It is more probable that they were made by a trap more than 
a mile from the creek and that the name of the stream was used merely to designate 
the approximate location of the trap. 
The unallocated catches of pink, chum, and red salmon in the Sumner Strait 
district may be accounted for largely in the operation of traps while those of kings 
and cohos were taken chiefly by trollers and gill netters fishing in the open waters of 
the strait and for that reason were not shown as coming from specific localities. 
Figure 33 shows graphically the catch of salmon in the Sumner Strait district 
from 1904 to 1927. The most marked change in the apparent condition of these 
fisheries was caused by the post-war economic disturbance. It affected all species 
and reached its lowest level in 1921. The trend of the catches then moved upward 
again until changing conditions brought about by new laws and regulations from 
1924 onward, and the abnormal season of 1927 affected the catch of pink and chum 
salmon and reduced them to extremely low levels. The other species were not 
affected to the same extent, nor as suddenly. The production of red salmon is 
interesting in that it has shown comparatively little fluctuation over a period of 
almost 30 years. 
STIKINE RIVER DISTRICT 
The Stikine River district covers the waters of an area which is bounded on the 
north by a line from Cosmos Point to the point of land on the south side of the 
entrance to Le Conte Bay, on the west by a line at 132°40' west longitude extending 
from the southern shore of Mitkof Island to the northern shore of Zarembo Island, 
on the south by a line from the north side of Deep Bay, on the east coast of Zarembo 
Island across Stikine Strait to Point Ancon on Woronkofski Island and thence across 
Zimovia Strait and Eastern Passage to Babbler Point on the mainland. The eastern 
boundary is the mainland shore from Babbler Point to Le Conte Bay, practically all 
of which constitutes the mouth of the Stikine. These boundaries were fixed with a 
view of covering only the gill-net fishing grounds of this river, and, at the same 
time, of showing something of the relative importance of this fishery. To that end, 
only salmon taken by seines and gill nets are considered as Stikine River fish. A 
map of the district is found in figure 34. Dry Strait, the Stikine flats, and the 
several mouths of the river constitute the fishing grounds. 
The Stikine is the largest river in southeastern Alaska. It rises several hundred 
miles from the coast in the mountains of western Canada and drains a large glaciated 
area in consequence of which its waters are highly turbid. Only 25 miles of the 
lower part of the river lie in Alaska. 
The size of the river, perhaps, induced some of the early salmon packers in 
Alaska to locate canneries near the mouth, under the apprehension that the river 
supported large runs of salmon, and that proximity to the most important fishing 
ground was a distinct advantage. In a few years it was evident that the Stikine 
fisheries alone supplied an inadequate number of salmon for a profitable pack. The 
first cannery was built here in 1887 at a point 8 miles above the mouth of the river; 
but 2 years later it was moved to Point Highfield, the northern extremity of Wrangell 
Island. The second cannery was built in 1889 at Gerard Point directly at the mouth 
of the river. It operated 2 years and was then merged with the plant at Point 
