264 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Outfit: 1 herring seine, 130 fathoms long, 40 feet deep, 14 -inch mesh, value $800; 
1 herring seine, 110 fathoms long, 30 feet deep, 14-inch mesh, value $600; 2 gill nets, 
75 fathoms long, 30 meshes deep, 7-inch mesh, value 65 cents per fathom; 2 seine 
boats, $180 each; 2 dories, $30 each; 3 skiffs, $20 each. 
The vessels were the steamer Neptune , 176 tons, crew 10, value $10,000, owned; 
house scows Ike, value $1,000, owned; Joe , value $1,000, owned. 
This outfit reached Wrangell Narrows August 20, and has been operating in the 
vicinity of Blind River. To September 5th, 250 barrels of herring and 8 barrels of 
cohoes had been salted. The party was fitted out to salt 3,000 barrels of herring. 
One of the house scows is fitted up as a cooper shop and the other as a bunk-house. 
The Royer -Warnock Packing Company . — This firm hails from San Francisco 
and located a cannery in southeastern Alaska in the spring of 1900. The site is that 
of the Buck saltery, in Beecher Pass, which connects Duncan Canal with Wrangell 
Narrows. The cannery is on the northern side of the pass, immediately within the 
southeastern point of the largest and easternmost of three islands which lie in the pass 
just south of Hood Point, with which they are connected at low water. 
The cannery is a very small plant, the old saltery building having been utilized in 
the so-called main building, and is without appliances usually found in a cannery 
of simplest form. It is believed that under present conditions an output of 25 cases 
a day would tax the efforts of the cannery. On the day of my visit 900 fish were 
received, and it was said that it would take from Thursday morning until Sunday to 
pack them. The superintendent stated that machinery would be introduced next 
year (1901), so that a season’s pack of 25,000 cases could be made. In this event new 
buildings will have to be erected, as the present ones are mere shacks. 
The pack was truly made by hand. The fish were cut in sections with an 
ordinary butcher’s kidfe, and the cans filled, capped, crimped, and soldered by hand. 
All cans were purchased; weight of tin plate unknown. There were no fishermen; 
all fish were purchased, and for them 6 cents to 8 cents were paid. There was no 
Chinese contract; the Mongolians employed were paid $35 per month and received 
board and transportation. 
The cannery employed 2 white men, 10 Japanese, and 1 Chinese. It had 2 seines, 
each 100 fathoms by 5 fathoms, value, $1.50 per fathom; 1 gill net, 100 fathoms by 
30 meshes, 7-inch mesh; 1 seine boat, $30; 1 scow, $30; 1 dory, $10; and 1 naphtha 
launch, the Ro-Wa , of 4 tons, crew 2; valued at $800. 
Nineteen barrels of redfish were salted. The pack of canned salmon for the season 
consisted of: 
Species. 
Cases. 
No. to 
the case. 
Date. 
Redfish 
480 
12 
July and August. 
Cohoes 
1,060 
7. 5 
Do. 
Dog salmon 
20 
7.8 
WRANGELL NARROWS STREAM. 
Emptying into Wrangell Narrows on the eastern side, opposite Finger Point and 
one-half mile to the northward of the astronomical station, Coast Survey chart No. 
8180, is a large stream which was said to run redfish. This stream was examined by 
