ALASKA SALMON INVESTIGATIONS IN 1900. 
243 
A line between Dot Island and Hog Island clears Danger Reef to the eastward 
one-fourth mile. On this line Hog Island will be seen filling a wide saddle in the 
distant mountains, and Dot Island will be slightly to the eastward of a V in the back 
range. The Albatross entered by the western passage and left by the eastern one. 
AFOGNAK SALMON STREAMS. 
At the head of Back Bay are two small streams, which at the time of our visit 
were literally choked with humpbacks. Cohoes are also said to run here, and several 
dead king salmon were seen. A small stream to the eastward of Bare Point carries 
a large number of humpbacks and is said to have a fair run of cohoes. Back of the 
village of Afognak is a shoal lagoon, or lily pond, which drains through a shifting 
channel and carries a few humpbacks and cohoes. 
The reservation stream, previously referred to as emptying into the head of the 
northwestern arm of the bay, is the only redfish stream in this vicinity. A board of 
experts was appointed by the Commissioner in 1889 to examine the salmon streams 
of Alaska, and as this board spent the summer of that year in examining Karluk, 
Alitak, and Afognak, the results of which, so far as they relate to Afognak, are 
given on pages 185-188 and 207-208 of the U. S. Fish Commission Bulletin for 1889, 
the stream and lake will here be referred to in only a general way, though both were 
visited on several occasions by this party. 
This year the redfish and humpbacks were very abundant in the reservation 
stream, and it is said that the stream can furnish, without injury, from 100,000 to 
150,000 redfish a year, but of this there is no data, as all commercial fishing in late 
years has been done surreptitiously. The runs are remarkably early in this stream, 
scattering redfish appearing early in May and in large numbers by the middle of 
that month; by dune 1 there is usually a lull. This is called the early run. The 
second run is said to commence with the spring tides in June, and the fish are then 
abundant until the middle of July, when the run grows slack, and by the last of the 
month it is practically over. If the water in the river is low the fish school around 
the mouth in great numbers, but upon the first rise they rush to the lake in a body. 
The redfish, upon arriving, school around the upper part of the bay, mostly along 
the western shore, where there are several excellent seining beaches. 
Cohoes appear in small numbers the last week in July; the run is at its height 
the last of August, and continues, in diminishing numbers, until October. Hump- 
backs appear during the middle of July, and run in large numbers during August, 
growing less the latter part of that month and until the middle of September. The 
last fish are, however, of very poor quality. Dog salmon are not very numerous, 
and seem to run scattering^ with all other species. Straggling king salmon are 
seen at irregular intervals throughout the season. They are never abundant and are 
only recognized as occasional visitors. Steelheads are believed to winter in the lakes, 
and descend to the sea as soon as the stream opens in the spring. They appear at all 
times during the season, but are most numerous during the coho run. Dolly Varden 
trout appear with the earliest species and remain throughout the season. 
The estuary and river to the falls, and the tributaries below, were crowded with 
humpbacks at the time of our visit. Great numbers were noticed trying to surmount 
