BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
216 
Bering Sea Packing Company. — In 1890 this company, a branch of the Alaska 
Improvement Company, though a separate corporation, purchased the machinery of 
the Western Alaska Packing Company at Ozernoy, and commenced building a can- 
nery on the left bank of the Ugashik, near the first Johnson saltery. In transporting 
the machinery on the schooner Premier , that vessel went ashore in Stepovak Bay and 
the machinery did not all reach the Ugashik until 1891, when it was installed and a 
small pack made that year. As the site appeared unsuitable, the cannery remained 
closed in 1892 and 1893, and in 1894 it was moved to a point on the left bank, about 
15 miles above Smoky Point, where it was operated in 1894, 1895, and 1896. In 
1897 it was sold to the Alaska Packers Association, with other property of the 
Alaska Improvement Company, and the machinery and equipment were utilized in 
the Alaska Packers Association cannery. Nothing remains but the dwelling of the 
superintendent, now used as a fishing camp by the Alaska Packers Association. 
Nelson saltery. — In 1893 Mr. Charles Nelson established a saltery on the left 
bank of the Ugashik, immediately above the last site of the Bering Sea Packing 
Company. After operating it in 1893 and 1894 it was sold to the Alaska Packers 
Association and closed. 
Alaska Packers Association Saltery. — In 1893 the Alaska Packers Association 
built a saltery on the left bank of the Ugashik, about a mile below the last site of the 
Bering Sea Packing Company. It was operated in 1893, 1894, and 1895, and then 
merged in with the Alaska Packers Association cannery, built the latter year near 
the pilot station. 
Ugashik Fishing Station. — In 1895 the Alaska Packers Association built a can- 
nery on the right bank of the Ugashik immediately above the pilot station, where 
the river is about 3 miles wide, utilizing in its construction the available machinery 
of the Russian -American Packing Company’s cannery at Afognak. It made the first 
pack in 1896, and has packed every year since to date. Originally it was a two-filler 
cannery, but in 1900 another filler was installed, and it now has a capacity of 2,400 
cases per day. The machinery consists of 7 retorts, 3 fillers, 3 toppers, 2 solderers, 
1 cutter, 1 spare filler, 1 spare topper, and 2 sets of can-making machines. 
Fish are pewed from boats and lighters to platforms and thence to fish-house, and 
when cleaned are transported in cars to the cutter. Seventy per cent of the cans are 
made at the cannery and the rest transported from San Francisco. One hundred 
pound tin plate is used for bodies and 95-pound tin for tops, all imported. 
Fishermen’s and Chinese’ contracts and native wages were the same as mentioned 
under other canneries. 
The transporting vessels enter the river at high water, and during the season 
are moored in the channel, one near the cannery and two near the left bank about 5 
miles above the cannery. 
In 1900 this cannery employed 64 white fishermen and trapmen, 24 white cannery 
and saltery hands, 20 natives, and 140 Chinese. 
It used two sets of gill nets, 24 to a set, each 85 fathoms long, 26 meshes deep, 
6^-inch mesh; value, about 65 cents per fathom. There were 3 traps; one about a 
mile above the cannery, on the right bank, with leads each 500 feet and pot 40 by 
40 feet; one about 18 miles above the cannery, on the left bank, with leads each 
400 feet and pot 40 by 40 feet, and one about 22 miles above the cannery, with leads 
