SALMON AND SALMON RIVERS OF ALASKA. 
169 
THE DOG SALMON 
occurs very abundantly in the small rivers and creeks of tbe islands and the main 
land. It makes its appearance at Kadiak about tbe middle of June and continues 
abundant for a month, after wbicb tbe numbers rapidly diminish. It leaves tbe coast 
with the first appearance of ice. Tbe flesb of this species will hardly ever be in 
request for canning, but it is one of tbe most important species to tbe natives, who 
dry it for winter use. 
REPRODUCTION. 
Tbe species of salmon above enumerated, though differing in their seasons of 
reproduction and in their spawning habits and requiring different conditions and envi- 
lonment, are all subject to the constraint of one common law — they must have access 
to their natural spawning grounds in the rapids of the rivers or in the cold snow-fed 
lakes from which they issue — and in this natural law is to be found the suggestion of 
such legislation as may be necessary “ to maintain the salmon fisheries under perma- 
nent conditions of production.” 
We must provide that reproduction, natural or artificial, shall be on such a scale 
as will compensate for natural waste and man’s destructive agencies. This may be 
accomplished in several ways : First, by legislation prescribing and enforcing such 
regulations in the conduct of the fisheries as will permit the salmon to enter the rivers 
and ascend to their spawning grounds in sufficient numbers to maintain the supply 
by natural reproduction ; second, by the artificial fertilization and hatching of eggs 
taken from salmon caught for the supply of the canneries and the distribution of the 
fry thus obtained to the streams and lakes, which are the natural feeding grounds of 
the young salmon for some mouths after hatching. 
Existing legislation concerning the protection of the salmon dates from the Fiftieth 
Congress and provides for the accomplishment of the first of these objects in the act 
following : 
[Public — N o. 158.] 
An act to provide for the protection of the salmon fisheries of Alaska. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United States of America in Congress 
assembled, That the erection of dams, barricades, or other obstructions in any of the rivers of Alaska, 
with the purpose or result of preventing or impeding the ascent of salmon or other anadromous species 
to their spawning grounds, is hereby declared to he unlawful, and the Secretary of the Treasury is 
hereby authorized and directed to establish such regulations and surveillance as may he necessary to 
insure that this prohibition is strictly enforced and to otherwise protect the salmon fisheries of Alaska ; 
and every person who shall he found guilty of a violation of the provisions of this section shall he fined 
not less than two hundred and fifty dollars for each day of the continuance of such obstruction. 
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 be necessary to prevent the impairment or exhaustion of these valuable fish- 
eries, and placing them under regular and permanent conditions of production. 
Sec. 3. That section nineteen hundred and fifty-six of the Revised Statutes of the United States is 
hereby declared to include and apply to all the dominion of the United States in the waters of Behring 
Sea; and it shall be the duty of the President, at a timely season in each year, to issue his proclama- 
tion and cause the same to be published for one mouth in at least one newspaper if any such there be 
