THE SALMON AND SALMON FISHEEIES OF ALASKA. 
Ill 
little under $20,000. The whole property, including all the above, cannery and saw- 
mill, buildings, dwellings, wharves, tools, fixtures, and machinery, steamers, boats, 
seines, etc., but exclusive of material on hand, is valued at about $50,000. 
When salmon were being packed it was noticed that the butchers on the fish float 
threw all the heads into canoes waiting alongside to receive them, and many canoe 
loads were carried away. Upon inquiry it was learned that the heads are put in 
baskets or bags placed along the shores between the high and low water marks, 
weighted with stones to keep them in place, and left for a week or ten days until 
thoroughly ripe; the snout or nose is then cut oft’ and consumed by the Indians as a 
great delicacy. 
PACKING CLAMS AT KLAWAK. 
The clams in this vicinity are very abundant, and in the late summer and fall 
they are in excellent condition for packing, being full-flavored and white. In the 
spring they are very dark. The cannery each fall makes a small pack of a few hun- 
dred cases when the run of salmon grows slack, and the jilant is idle several days at a 
time for want of fish. Owing to the great range of tide in Alaska and the great dif- 
ferences in the range, clams can only be obtained in quantities for a few days during 
the spring tides, so that if there were a large demand for them the ijack would have 
to be incidental to the salmon pack or to some other industry to make it iiay. So far, 
however, there has been very little demand for this product; the company has been 
unable, to introduce it in competition with eastern goods. The clams are delicious, 
and the juice as prepared is pure and unadulterated except by the steam in cooking. 
The Klawak cannery usually takes a few days in September for the clam jiack, 
and prior to that time it notifies the Indians that clams will be purchased. Ten 
cents a bucketful is paid, the bucket holding about a peck. The wharf is first 
thoroughly cleansed and the clams are spread in one layer over it. A stream of salt 
water is then directed over them from a steam i)ump until they are perfectly clean. 
The clams are next put in a large perforated cylinder or tub holding about 8 bushels, 
and this rests on iron crosspieces placed over the uiiper end of a tight metal tub, 
which is a little larger in diameter and about one-third the height of the vessel in 
which the clams are placed. The whole is so arranged that in cooking, when the 
steam passes through the perforated tub holding the clams, the .juice will fall into 
the lower tub. The tubs are made cylindrical in order to fit the retorts used here. 
The clams are then placed in the retorts, cooked under pressure at a temperature of 
220° F. for twenty minutes, and then removed and placed on long, slatted tables, 
around which are seated ‘‘klootchmen,” who remove the meat and cut off the black 
siphon or snout. The meat is carried to another table, cleansed by being passed 
through hot salt-water, and then packed into 2-pound cans. When the can is filled 
to the top with meat, hot juice is jjoured in, comidetely filling all the spaces, and the 
cans then go the solderer, by whom they are sealed. 
The juice, when removed from the retorts, is put into a barrel, and what is not 
used for filling up the cans of clams is poured into separate tins, each holding a pint. 
One-pound salmon cans are used for the juice, with caps having a small aperture to 
admit of soldering. After the cans are sealed tliey are tested, cooked, vented, sealed, 
cooked, tested, cooled, lacquered, tested, labeled, and cased. The day the cannery 
was visited 1,092 buckets of clams were packed, making 224 cases of 24 two-pound tins 
of clams and 190 cases of 24 one-pint tins ot juice. 
