ALASKA SALMON INVESTIGATIONS IN 1900. 
331 
THE KARLUK HATCHERY. 
By Harry Clifford Fassett, 
U. S. Fish, Commission. 
The following notes concerning the salmon hatchery maintained by the Alaska 
Packers Association near Karluk, Kadiak Island, Alaska, are based upon an inspec- 
tion made in accordance with instructions of Captain Moser August 8, 1900. 
The plant is a model one. It is located on the southern shore, at the eastern end 
of the Karluk Lagoon, near the outlet of Karluk River, where a streamlet, called by 
the hatchery people Shasta Creek, enters the lagoon from the hills to the southward. 
From the rising ground immediately back of the hatchery Karluk Head, 3 miles west 
(magnetic), may be seen over the intervening low points, with the cannery buildings 
of Karluk Spit showing to the right of it. Here ground was broken for the hatchery 
May 28, 1896, and on August 29, the same year, construction work was so far advanced 
that stripping was begun. The actual cost of the present plant is said to be fully 
$20,000, and the annual expenditure about$10, 000 for maintenance, repairs, and labor. 
Considering the extent of the establishment, the rate of wages necessarily demanded 
from its isolation, the long period of incubation, and expensive methods of securing 
stock tish, this hardly seems excessive. 
In 1897 a party from this vessel visited this hatchery, the results of whose obser- 
vations are contained in Captain Moser’s report upon “Alaska Salmon and Salmon 
Fisheries, 1897,” pages 155-157, to which attention is invited. 
Since then the establishment has been considerably improved, without, however, 
increasing the egg capacity of the hatching-house; in fact, this has been reduced by 
one trough, which was removed to make room for the hot-water drum of the heating 
system. A number of new ripening ponds have been made, the rearing or nursery 
pond enlarged, and the original ponds remodeled. In the main building the dining 
room and kitchen have been moved upstairs, an additional room built out in front', 
the basement enlarged and partly cemented, heating system enlarged and improved, 
and an electric-light plant installed. The. latter has a capacity of about 10 lights, 
with 25 outlets at present, and the power is generated by a small Pelton wheel fed 
by a 6 -inch pipe under a head of about 60 feet. 
The main building, 32 feet by 100 feet, faces to the northward (see sketch). Imme- 
diately west of it are a tramway and line of ponds, the latter extending down the 
slope along the original bed of Shasta Creek northward to the beach. Abutting the 
eastern end of the hatching-house is a covered pond known as the “reservoir,” and 
beyond, in the same direction, a narrow ditch leads to the nursery pond. A plank 
walk extends from the hatchery steps across the narrow beach flat to a short wooden 
pier which ends at a condemned lighter weighted with stones, forming the landing 
place. Immediately westward of the landing are the corrals. On either flank of 
