THE SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 
7 
THE SALMON RUNS. 
lu the detailed accounts of the different streams are given the times during which 
the various species of salmon run, based on the delivery of fish at the canneries. 
There is a great variation in the streams, but by referring to these records and to the 
table which gives the packs for the different canneries and the dates between which 
the packs were made, a fair idea may be obtained of the time when salmon run in 
sufficient numbers for commercial purposes. These dates vary greatly, but it appears 
as though the onshore movement came from the westward, the large rivers of a region 
receiving the lirst impulses. This movement is but natural when it is considered that 
the larger streams extend their infiuences wider and farther, and the fish naturally 
come first within the influence of these waters and follow them to their sources. 
The king salmon, as a rule, probably come first; and, while not abundant at any 
fishing station in Alaska, they are found scattering everywhere, and individual 
stragglers occur in nearly every stream and throughout the entire season. 
As soon as the ice clears sufficiently to permit fishing the king salmon are taken, 
the earliest at the Copper Eiver about May 6, at the mouth of the Stikine lliver about 
May 15, while Cook Inlet and Taku Eiver are not sufficiently clear until later — about 
May 25. In these localities a few redflsh are taken with the earliest fishing, showing 
that they are iiresent, and as soon as they run in sufficient numbers to fish for them 
the gear is changed, except in Cook Inlet, where king salmon are fished for until the 
latter iiart of July. The fishing for king salmon in other localities does not cease 
because fewer fish run, but because the run of redfish is much larger and the fishing 
more profitable. It is generally believed, and my observations confirm the view, that 
the king salmon run in numbers only in streams fed in part by glacial waters. 
In difi'erent parts of this report, under stream or cannery headings, detailed 
reference is made to the runs of redfish, which need not be rejicated here. In 
localities other than those in the vicinity of the larger rivers — that is, on i)urely redflsh 
ground— it will be noticed that they run first in the Karluk district, where packing 
usually begins during the first days of June ; Chignik follows about the middle of J une, 
and Prince William Sound and southeast Alaska in the latter part of the same month. 
The streams nearer the sea receive the first fish, though there are many exceptions, as 
will be seen by reference to the stream notes. The run at Karta Bay, for instance, 
