SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA SALMON STATISTICS 
557 
cohos, as they are found with the king salmon on the feeding grounds and constitute 
fully half the catches of the trollers on these widely scattered fields. The recorded 
catches in this district do not, therefore, accurately reveal the true condition of the 
fisheries and the fluctuations in catches at the mouth of the river and the falling off 
in recent years cannot be taken as definite evidence of serious depletion. 
WEST COAST OF PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND DISTRICT 
This district embraces all the waters of the west coast of Prince of Wales Island 
from the boundary of the Sumner Strait district at 133°20' west longitude at the 
northern end of El Capitan Passage southward to Tlevak Narrows, all the interven- 
ing islands, the eastern and southern shores of Kosciusko Island, and the entire west 
coast of Dali Island to Cape Muzon, comprising a total length of approximately 
115 miles. (See fig. 35.) The several passages and channels between the islands, 
and the many small bays of the region, mark this as probably the most intricate shore 
in all Alaska. The islands of the district are rugged and for the most part their 
shores are bold and rocky. No rivers or very large streams are found here. There 
are innumerable small streams, however, many of which are the outlets of lakes. 
The salmon runs provide a varied fishery of which the pink salmon is the predominant 
species. 
Salmon canning began in this district in 1878, simultaneously with the beginning 
of packing at Old Sitka. The first cannery was located at Klawak, superseding a 
saltery which had existed there for several years, and in 1927 it attained the dis- 
tinction of having an unbroken record of packing for 50 years. Salmon salting was 
carried on to a limited extent in other localities soon after this cannery was established, 
notably at Sarkar Cove, Holbrook Creek, and Shinaku Inlet. No other canneries 
were built or operated in this district until 1911, when the first floating plant made its 
appearance and anchored in the vicinity of Waterfall where a cannery was built a 
few years later. The Klawak cannery was, therefore, the sole occupant of the dis- 
trict for a period of 33 years although canneries in adjacent districts frequently took 
salmon from the more noted red salmon streams. 
Details of the catches from 1878 to 1895, inclusive, are not available, so that 
there is now no means of knowing how many salmon of each species were taken in 
these years or the localities from which they came, except as Moser recorded the 
catches at Klawak and a few other localities from 1886 to 1900 by one company. 
The pack for these earlier years is shown in table 20. 
Table 20. — Pack of canned salmon at Klawak from 1878 to 1895 
Year 
Cases 
Year 
Cases 
Year 
Cases 
1878 
5,402 
6,675 
6,539 
8,977 
11, 501 
8,240 
1884 
8! 428 
7,680 
9, 562 
12, 325 
11,370 
1890 
10, 188 
9,256 
10, 194 
12, 595 
14, 455 
1879 
1885 
1891 _ . 
1880 
1892 
1881 
1887 
1893 
1894 
1883 
1895 
It is probable that these packs were largely, if not wholly, composed of red 
salmon, and that the larger part of the catches came from the Klawak stream. Not 
until competition for red salmon developed was much attention given to the other 
