196 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The. coast between Cape Constantine and Point Protection is generally low. 
The interior is rolling, broken into high mounds, ponds, and marshes. 
Very little is known of the extent of shoal water off Cape Constantine. It is 
probable that the bottom is much broken and lumpy off the whole entrance to the 
bay. The Albatross , two hours before low water, had several soundings of 5 fathoms, 
well outside of the bajy in what is considered to be the best water. 
On May 20, 1898, the Alaska Packers Association cannery ship Sterling , with 
the spring outfit for Ivoggiung on board, was lost on the shoals about 5 miles to the 
southward of Cape Constantine. At the point where the vessel struck, Cape Con- 
stantine and Point Protection are in range. 
At Point Etolin there is a line of low bluffs, which at three points shows a bald 
yellowish face, the highest to the westward. The land in this vicinity is generally 
low. It. is said the shoal off Point Etolin does not extend as far offshore as indicated 
on Coast Survey chart No. 8800. The cannery tenders in running from the Nushagak 
to the Kvichak usually round Point Etolin by the lead, keeping in 3 or 1 fathoms of 
water, which they expect to find about 1 miles from the shore. 
It is my opinion that a vessel bound for the Nushagak should make Cape Grey, 
the northern entrance point to the Ugashik, which is high and easily recognized, 
and from this position take her departure and shape the course for the entrance, 
favoring the Etolin side in preference to the Cape Constantine side, and using the 
lead constantly in approaching these shoals. A vessel should arrive in the entrance 
of the hay midway between Point Protection and Point Etolin, and from this posi- 
tion a course northwest for a distance of 5 miles will carry outside the lower bar, 
where a stranger must anchor and communicate for a pilot. Judgment must be used 
in making allowance for tidal currents, and it is needless to sa}^ that the right arm 
of the navigator in this region is the lead. 
The following notes, made upon leaving the Nushagak, may be of service. A 
vessel bound out should leave the upper anchorage two hours before high water, so 
as to have the best water on the bars. The Albatross left the anchorage at the upper 
cannery at high water and followed the western shore, at a distance of 300 or 100 
yards, to the lower cannery on the same side (Bristol Bay Canning Company). After 
rounding the point below this cannery, the distance from shore was increased to avoid 
a spit making out from the first valley beyond the point, on which the bark Wildwood 
was lost. Having passed the spit, the western shore was kept well on board, making 
allowances for the beach that uncovers at low water. A short distance above Coffee 
Point the Albatross laid a course SSE. f E. for 2.3 miles, then SE. ^ E. for 1.1 miles, 
which carried over what is known as “The Cross-over” and to Clark Point. The 
eastern shore was then followed at a distance of one-quarter to one-half mile, and on 
arriving off Ekuk we hauled sharp across the river bar on a course SW. This course 
was kept until the cannery at Clark Point came on with the second depression in the 
distant blue ridge to the northward, and the right tangent of the ridge on the south 
side of the Egashak River came on with the left tangent of the first high mountain 
of the ridge beyond the low land. The course was then changed to SE. ^ S. , and 
after running about 3^ miles the outer bar was crossed. 
The Albatross made the shoal water of the outer bar on the following bearings: 
Clark Point, N. by W. ; Nichols Hills, S. by W. ; right tangent of bluff south of the 
