NOTES ON THE FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
237 
to the person wlio for the first time visits this region, would have too little general 
imiiortance to deserve mention. In order to renderthe notes more complete, an account 
of the salmon industry for the year 1894 is presented, although the season was only 
half over at the time of the writer’s visit. The information for the latter ]>art of the 
season has been ol)tained chielly by correspondence. The detailed tabular matter 
here offered is in all cases drawn from the books of canners or lishermen, and maybe 
accepted as accurate. 
The salmon fisJiery undcaiining indnstry in 1893 . — The ffshing season of 1893 on the 
Oolund)ia Elver Avas noteworthy for two reasons — the loss of life among the ftshermen 
of the lower river was never greater; the pack of chinook salmon was the smallest in 
twenty years, that is, since 1873: and the general packwms less than in any previous 
year since 1874, with the exception of 1887 and 1889. 
Much of the loss of life among the gill-net ffshermen in the past has been dne to 
gross carelessness or foolhardiness on the iiart of the men in venturing too near the 
bar at the mouth of the ilver in the hope of taking the fish Avhen they first leave the 
ocean. It is said, however, that the disastrous death rate in 1893 was in large part 
unavoidable, and was due to the occurrence of sudden gales, which took the boats 
una wares. In the early part of June gales resulted in the death of 34 men, and by the 
close of the season the loss of lives reached 54, about 40 of the men being married. 
The money losses in boats and gear aggregated nearly 120,000. 
In the early part of May the canners acceded to the demands of the gill-net 
fishermen’s union for a price of 5 cents a pound for chinook salmon instead of the 
uniform rate of $1 per fish which had formerly iirevailed. Eeference to tables of 
averages elsewhere gi\^en Avill show that the average weight of Chinooks taken with 
gill nets in 1893 was 22.80 pounds, so that the ])rices received amounted to an advance 
over 1892 of 14 cents on each fish sold; on this basis the fishermen must have been 
benefited by the change to the amount of fully $75,000. 
Fishing with all forms of apparatus in the lower river was less satisfactory than 
in the previous year. The average catch of salmon by gill nets was more than 100 
less to a boat than in 1892, the figures given being 450 against 505. The traps were 
scarcely half as successful as in the previous season, being injured by storms and 
freshets and being shunned to a considerable extent by the large runs offish, owing, 
as some suppose, to a shallowing of the Avater Ity the accumulations of sand and 
sediment caused by the thousands of stakes. Seine fishing began later than usual 
and was unsuccessful generally. The run of Chinooks in August Avas very large, and is 
said to liaA^e obviated what would otherAvise ha\"e been a somewhat disastrous season 
to the p>ackers. While May Avas the best month for gill nets and July for pound nets, 
the catch of both these forms of apparatus in August was large. The run during 
the whole of the open season in August was reported to be extraordinarily heavy, and 
when the season closed there Avas still an enorjnous body of fish passing up the river. 
The total pack to August 10 was reported to be about 365,000 cases, of Avhich about 
290,000 cases Avere chinooks. Compared with the pack of the year 1883, ten j’-ears 
previously, Avhen only chinook salmon were canned, the decrease in chinooks Avas 58 
per cent and in the total jiack was 45 per cent. 
