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BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
All the northern rivers probably carry large numbers of salmon, but, owing to 
their inaccessibility and the shortness of the season, it is doubtful if there is any 
locality on the American side of Bering Sea, except the Bristol Bay region, where 
commercial salmon fishing can be profitably conducted until salmon become very 
scarce. On the Asiatic side, so far as my inquiry extends, the rivers carry the same 
’ species of salmon as on the American side, and the fisheries each year are being 
extended. Large numbers of salmon are dry-salted on the Amur River and shipped 
to Japan. The Russian Seal-Skin Company, which has large concessions covering 
eastern Siberia, including Kamchatka, is extending its fisheries year by year. On 
our recent visit to Kamchatka information was obtained at Petropaulski, from their 
Russian manager, to the effect that they have been exporting salt salmon for the last 
three or four years and have now 25 fishing stations, 9 in the Sea of Okhotsk, 9 in 
the Bay of Avatcha, 4 on the approaches to that bay, and 3 on the outer coast in the 
vicinity of Cape Tschipunski. The company employs, distributed amongst these 
stations, 500 Japanese fishermen, who, with their sampans, nets, etc., are brought 
from Hakodate in the spring and returned there in the fall. The fish are dry-salted, 
packed in wooden crates of about L20 pounds each, and find a ready market in Japan. 
In 1899 the company shipped 900,000 salmon. It was the intention of this company 
to erect a cannery in Avatcha Bav during the year 1900, for operation in 1901. 
It was stated that Kamchatka River carried an abundance of salmon of all species; 
but it is understood that the locality has not been prospected and the commercial 
value is therefore unknown. Probably all the Kamchatka rivers carry salmon. 
The Albatross arrived in Bristol Bay July 5, making an anchorage off Cape Grey, 
the northern entrance point to Ugashik, but, being unable to communicate on account 
of unfavorable weather, we proceeded the following day to Nushagak Bay, making 
an anchorage off Protection Point. Expecting to obtain the services of a pilot, but 
no one appearing, communication was opened with the canneries, some 25 miles dis- 
tant. On July 8, Mr. P. H. Johnson, the superintendent of all the Alaska Packers 
Association canneries on the Nushagak, came on board and kindly piloted the vessel 
to an anchorage in 3£ fathoms, at low water, off' the cannery of the Alaska Packing 
Company; this is the upper cannery on the western shore, immediately below the 
junction of the Nushagak and Wood rivers. Here it was learned that it was imprac- 
ticable to carry the Albatross , on account of her draft, to the canneries on the Kvichak 
and vicinity, and, as a cannery tender was about to leave for that section, the com- 
manding officer and two assistants took passage on her and left that day for Kvichak 
Bay. In no other way could this investigation have been carried on so effectively 
and in so short a time, and my thanks are due to Mr. Johnson, not only for this 
courtesy, but for others extended to myself and the officers of this vessel. 
NAVIGATION NOTES. 
Until a proper survey of the Bristol Bay region has been made, it must be 
regarded by mariners as a dangerous locality to navigate; it is only by the greatest 
vigilance and constant use of the lead that disaster can be avoided upon approach- 
ing the land. This is especially true of the northern arms and approaches, which 
receive the waters of the great salmon streams on which all the Bering Sea canneries 
are located. These rivers are the Egashak, Wood, and Nushagak, emptying into 
Nushagak Bay; the Kvichak, Lockenuck, Naknek, and Egegak. which empty into 
