ALASKA SALMON INVESTIGATIONS IN 1900. 
193 
The Nushagak is the northernmost river now fished for commercial purposes; to 
the westward of it is the Togiak, emptying into Kululak Bay, between Cape Con- 
stantine and Cape Newenham. The Alaska Packers Association prospected this 
river by maintaining a saltery near its mouth for two years, seasons of 1895 and 
1896, and then abandoned it as unprofitable. 
The next large river to the northward is the Kuskokwim, which, so far as known, 
is not accessible to vessels. The tides in this river are far greater than on the 
Nushagak, and the entrance is choked with banks and shoals. The census report of 
1890 states, page 101: 
But a few miles to the northward of Quinhaghamiut [which is 55 miles to the northward of 
Goodnews Bay, according to the same report] is the present limit of navigation for seagoing crafts, at 
the mouth of the Kuskokwim, and even that point is reached with difficulty and at considerable risk, 
owing to shoals of unknown extent and shifting channels; and as at this point the anchorage is entirely 
exposed to prevailing winds and sea, the Kuskokwim River can scarcely be considered open to com- 
merce. At present but one vessel a year runs in when the indications are favorable to discharge a 
cargo of goods sent up for the Kuskokwim trade by the Alaska Commercial Company. 
The census report of 1880, in relation to salmon on the Kuskokwim, states: 
Altogether these people would be in a sorry plight indeed were it not for the abundant supply of 
salmon during the summer. * * * They all Hock together on the banks of the Kuskokwim and 
fairly line the river with fish traps and drying frames, or poles, and from the beginning of June to the 
month of August the traps are constantly being emptied and filled again. The quantity of fish secured 
during the season is very great, even in proportion to the number of inhabitants, but when we con- 
sider the wasteful habit of drying the fish until only a small fraction of the original substance remains 
it can not astonish us to hear the natives compla'n of an insufficient supply. Over 4,000 people lay in 
the winter supply for themselves and for their dogs during a few months of summer, but it is safe to 
state that with a more economical mode of preserving the fish four times the number could live in 
comfort within the same space. 
In the next stretch to the northward there are doubtless other rivers carrying- 
salmon, but of these there seems to bo no information, until we arrive at the Yukon, 
and here no exact data is obtainable. The census report of 1880 states, page 11: 
The ice came down the Yukon in such masses and in such profusion that it grounded in the 
deltoid mouth in the month of July so as to form a barrier against the running of the salmon. 
Again, in reference to the Yukon, page 73: 
We know that the run of the various species of salmon is very large, though not extended over a 
large period, and also that a large proportion of the catch is preserved by the wasteful process of drying 
only. * * * As far as the Eskimo race has extended its settlements on the banks of the river, to 
a distance of from 200 to 300 miles from the sea, the fish-traps already described lie on both banks; but 
as the mode of fishing affects only such fish as ascend the stream along the banks and eddies, the 
number of salmon which complete their journey of reproduction without meeting any obstacles must 
exceed by far the number secured by the natives. In view of the immense width and depth of the 
river, it seems very doubtful whether any of this immense mass of fish could be secured by fishermen, 
even were they provided with all the appliances now in use on the Columbia River, in Oregon, and the 
Sacramento, in California. 
This great river we know is not accessible to any seagoing vessel, as none but 
those of the shallowest draft can enter. 
In reference to rivers farther north, quoting from the census report of 1880: 
Of the consumption of fish along the Arctic coast of Alaska to the northward of Bering Straits, no 
reliable data are accessible. The people subsist to a greater extent upon seals, walrus, and the meat of 
whales. The run of salmon in the few larger rivers is necessarily short, and the fish are much smaller 
than we find them to the southward; the natives, however, manage to put up during the brief summer 
a small supply of dried salmon and whitefish. 
F. C. B. 1901—13 
