ALASKA SALMON INVESTIGATIONS IN 1900. 
177 
BRISTOL BAY DISTRICT. 
TOPOGRAPHIC AND GEOGRAPHIC FEATURES. 
The commercial .salmon fisheries included in the division laid out in my pre- 
vious report as the Bering Sea district are confined entirely to Bristol Bay, and if 
the wide limits ascribed by some to this bay are accepted, the canneries and fisheries 
are all in the northeast section or on the rivers that empty there. One authority 
states that “Bristol Bay maybe said to include all that part of Bering Sea lying 
east of a line drawn from the northwest cape of Unimak Island to the Ivuskokwim 
River.” In my opinion, a better western boundary, topographically, would be a 
line from Port Moller to Cape Newenham. 
The commercial salmon fisheries of this district are on the Ugashik, Egegak, 
Naknek, Kvichak, Nushagak, and Wood rivers, and their sea approaches. These 
rivers are all large, with large lake sources, and, except Wood River, drain the 
western slopes of the mountain range that traverses the Alaska Peninsula and 
extends along the western border of Cook Inlet. 
This mountain range lies close along the eastern side of the peninsula, and at 
intervals it rises into volcanic peaks of considerable height, some of which, by^ their 
smoky wreaths, still indicate activity. The greater part of the ridge is snow- 
covered, and its northern extension forms the mountain masses which extend along 
the western side of Cook Inlet, where the volcanoes Ilianma (12,000 feet) and 
Redoubt (11,000 feet) rise conspicuously above the lower masses. 
This ridge is not altogether continuous; there are a few breaks which admit of 
portage, and as the end of the peninsula is reached there are a number of depressions. 
It is said that formerly sea-otter hunters from Bristol Bay, by ascending the Kvichak 
River to Lake Ilianma, made a portage to Kamyshak Bay. In the early da} 7 s the 
Russian promyshleniks found their way from Kadiak Island to Bristol Bay, using the 
pass across the peninsula from Katmai to the headwaters of the Naknek. 
For many years the Russian - American Company transported their merchandise 
across from Katmai, thus reaching the Bristol Bay, Nushagak, Yukon, and St. Michael 
regions. At Chignik there is a well-known portage, and beyond to the westward 
there are several which are still used. The mountain range shows two distinct 
benches of upheaval, and the theory has been advanced that in former ages, not very 
remote geologically, these depressions were submerged, forming waterways into 
Bering Sea, and the present ridge was then broken into islands, of which the present 
Aleutian chain is a continuation. 
As the divide of this ridge lies close to the eastern shore, the watersheds on that 
side are short, the streams are numerous and small, and there are no great lakes and 
rivers. At Chignik, where probably the largest river on the eastern side has its 
outlet, there is a depression in the mountain chain, and the lakes in which the river 
has its source lie in a plain beyond, to the westward of the mountain masses. It is 
here that the portage referred to exists. It. extends from the Chignik lakes to a 
stream which empties into Bering Sea near Port Hadden. 
On the western slope of the peninsula there is a different topographical condition. 
The shore generally is low, with here and there an isolated mountain or projecting 
F. C. B. 1901—12 
