12.-REP0RT ON THE SALMON AND SALMON RIVERS OF ALASKA, WITH 
NOTES ON THE CONDITIONS, METHODS, AND NEEDS 
• OF THE SALMON FISHERIES. 
BY TARLETON H. BEAN, 
Ichthyologist, U. S. Fish Commission. 
(With plates xev-lxxix.) 
[Reprint of H. R. Mis. Doc. No. 211, Fifty-first Congress.') 
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 
U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, 
Washington, D. C., June 6, 1890. 
Sir : I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of an investigation of the 
habits, abundance, and distribution of the salmon of Alaska, as well as the present 
conditions of the fisheries and the methods employed in the prosecution of the same, 
such investigation having been made under the authority of Congress, as conveyed in 
section 2 of act approved March 2, 1889, and entitled “An act to provide for the pro- 
tection of the salmon fisheries of Alaska,” as follows: 
Sec. 2. That the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries is hereby empowered and directed to institute 
an investigation into the habits, abundance, and distribution of the salmon of Alaska, as well as the 
present .conditions and methods of the fisheries, with a view of recommending to Congress such addi- 
tional legislation as may bo necessary to prevent the impairment or exhaustion of these valuable 
fisheries, and placing them under regular and permanent conditions of production. 
# # 'jf # 
No appropriation was made to cover the expenses of such investigation, but con- 
sidering the act mandatory, and realizing the importance of placing before Congress 
at the earliest date practicable the information necessary to indicate the additional 
legislation reqnired for the protection and maintenance of the river fisheries of 
Alaska, 1 arranged to provide for the expenses of the investigation out of the general 
appropriation for the propagation of food-fishes, and with the opening of the season 
placed a party of investigators in the field, with instructions to proceed directly to the 
island of Kadiak and, after a thorough study of the conditions and methods of the 
salmon fisheries there, to extend their investigations to Cook’s Inlet and its affluents, 
if the brief season available for field investigation would permit. 
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