110 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The cannery at Klawak.is one of the smaller canneries of Alaska. It packs from 
12.000 to 16,000 cases, the fish being obtained from the streams north and south of the 
cannery. The field was clear until 1896, when the cannery at Hunter Bay was built, 
and since that time the fishermen of the two canneries resort to the same streams on 
the south end of Prince of Wales Island. Ten years ago the Klawak cannery 
received fish from as far south as Hessa, and even from Nichols Bay, but in late years 
the princiiial sources of supply of redflsh have been Hetta, the home stream, and Sar- 
Kar, with small intervening streams that some years have furnished from 1,000 to 
2.000 redfish. Cohoes are nowhere very abundant in this district during the canning 
season, though the Indians say that large schools frequently come in after the cannery 
people leave. The Indian’s idea of a large number, however, is usually measured by 
his own wants. He has no conception of a large number with reference to a cannery 
supply. 
The Hetta stream has already been described. 
The steam sawmill connected with the cannery has a capacity of 15,000 feet per 
day, but is only used for making boxes and supplying local demands. 
The work at Klawak, from the taking of the fish in the streams to the loading of 
the cases containing the canned jiroduct on board the ocean carriers, is nearly all done 
by Indians — men, women, and children. From the earliest operations of the cannery 
until 1896 Indian labor has been exclusively employed, but in that year two Chinese 
were engaged, one for cap-cutting and the other for final testing and as general expert. 
In 1897 seven Chinese were employed, and the manager had under consideration the 
feasibility of using Chinese and doing away with Indian labor, chiefly upon the ground 
of economy, but also because Chinese labor is more certain and more easily controlled. 
If, at the beginning of or during a season, the cannery should decline to accede to the 
demands of the Indians for increased wages, a strike is apt to result, causing the loss 
of a iiack. 
In 1896 the cannery employed 2 white and 40 native fishermen; and in the can- 
nery the help consisted of 7 whites, 32 klootchmen, 30 men and boys, and 2 Chinese. 
There were used 4 seines, each 110 fathoms long, and valued at $300 each. The 
steamer Klawack, of 11 tons, with a crew of 4, and valued at $5,000, and the steamer 
Cora, with a crew of 3, and valued at $1,000, were the vessels employed; but in spring 
and fall a vessel was chartered as a transport. One fish-scow valued at $100, and 4 
seine-boats valued at $90 each, were also used. 
The following table gives the packs for 1896 and 1897 : 
Number 
of cases 
packed. 
Number 
of fish 
per case. 
Ecmarks. 
14, 089 
2, 073 
513 
13 
8 to 9< 
22 
40 barrels of salmon bellies were 
salted, 300 cases of clams were 
packed (24 two-pound cans to 
the case), also 300 cases of 
clam juice (24 one-pint cans 
per case) . 
9, 520 
1,995 
4, 190 
200 cases of clams and 200 cases 
22l 
of clam juice were also packed. 
Cohoes 
Humphacks 
Eedflsh 
Cohoes 
humphacks 
July 19 to Aug. 23 . . 
Aug. 15 to Sept. 25 . 
July 24 to Aug. 10.. 
June 26 to Aug. 31 . 
Aug. 18 to Sept. 20 . 
July 26 to Aug. 22. , 
The sawmill and its machinery are valued at $13,000. The machinery also fur- 
nishes the motive power for the cannery. The cannery buildings, complete with 
storehouse, wharves, tramways, machinery, tools, fixtures, retorts, etc., are valued at a 
