SALMON AND SALMON RIVERS OF ALASKA. 
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INVESTIGATION OF THE SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 
INTRODUCTORY. 
The marvelous abundance of several species of salmon in Alaskan waters has been 
long known, but in consequence of the remoteness of this region and its inaccessi- 
bdity, the abundant supply in rivers nearer markets, and a disposition on the part of 
buyers to underrate Alaskan products, its fishery resources have not been laid under 
contribution for market supply until within a few years, during which we have seen, 
as the result of reckless and improvident fishing, the practical destruction of the 
salmon fisheries of the Sacramento and the reduction of the take on the Columbia 
to hardly one-third of what it was in the early history of the salmon-canning indus- 
try on that river. At present the streams of Alaska furnish the larger proportion of 
the canned salmon which find their way to the markets. 
Whether these fisheries shall continue to furnish the opportunity for profitable 
enterprise and inv'estmeut depends upon the policy to be inaugurated and maintained 
by the Government. Under judicious regulation and restraint these fisheries may be 
made a continuing source of wealth to the inhabitants of the Territory and an impor- 
tant food resource to the nation ; without such regulation and restraint, we shall 
have repeated in Alaskan rivers the story of the Sacramento and the Columbia; and 
the destruction in Alaska will be more rapid because of the small size of the rivers 
and the ease with which salmon can be prevented from ascending them. For a 
few years there will be wanton waste of that marvelous abundance, which the fisher- 
men — concerned only for immediate profit and utterly improvident of the future — 
declare to be inexhaustible. This season of prosperity will be followed by a rapid de- 
cline in the value and production of these fisheries, and a point will be eventually 
reached where the salmon-canning industry will be no longer profitable. 
SPECIES OP SALMON OF ECONOMIC VALUE. 
The species of salmon found in Alaska in quantities sufficient to constitute an 
economic resource are as follows : 
(1) The Eed Salmon {Oncorhynchus nerka). 
(2) The King Salmon {Oncorhynchus chouicha). 
(3) Thu Silver Salmon {Oncorhynchus kisutch). 
(4) The Hump-back Salmon {Oncorhynchus gorbuscha). 
(5) The Dog Salmon ( Oncorhynchus keta). 
(6) The Steel Head {Salmo gairdneri). 
(7) The Dolly Varden {Salvelinus malma). 
