THE SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 
117 
The following' table gives the pack for 189G and 1897 : 
No. of fish 
per case. 
11 
5 
23 
11 
5 
23 
Though the average number of fish per case in 1897 is given the same as for 1896, 
it seems much higher for redfish, on account of the large number of fish from Necker 
Bay, which run as high as 30 to the case, and have not been considered in the average. 
The Chinese contract was at 44 cents per case; the fishermen were jiaid -fl.75 
per day and board. As there is the same trouble here in holding the native labor 
throughout the season, $1.50 is paid and the remainder reserved unfil the end of the 
season, when, by contract, it is forfeited if the native leaves without permission. 
The cannery is small, having an output slightly less than fhat of Klawak. It has 
no regular fishing stations and iiurchases fish only incidentally. The steamer goes 
from stream to stream where it is believed that fish may be obtained, and when loaded 
it returns to the cannery. If a stream is found having a good run of fish, a seining 
gang is left there. The streams are scattered over a territory fished by no other 
cannery, and range on the outer coast from Cape Ommaney to Cross Sound and on 
both sides of Chatham Strait from Icy Straits to Cape Ommaney. It is one of the 
hardest fishing routes in Alaska. The streams all lie in unsurveyed districts, and as a 
rule are small and uncertain. A stream that yields 4,000 to 5,000 redfish one year may 
not have enough the next to feed a native family, A stream in Chatham Strait, 
fished by this cannei’y, was prospected secretly and independently one year with great 
success by different parties. The following year they met at the mouth of the stream 
with big outfits, neither previously knowing the other’s intentions, and where there had 
been thousands of fish the year before, there were not enough to salt a dozen barrels. 
The cannery is at the extreme end of Redfish Bay, which runs north-northwest 
and south-southeast. The mouth of the home stream is west from the cannery about 
309 yards. 
REDFISH BAY STREAM. 
This is a lake outlet and flows from the lake in a general east-southeast direction 
over a rocky bed, with considerable velocity. The stream is about half a mile long, 
and the width between banks is 50 feet, though at the time of our visit it did not flow 
more than 8 inches deep at a point where it was 20 feet wide. There are numerous 
low falls and rapids, but none which prevent redfish or cohoes from ascending, though 
it is doubtful if humpbacks or dog salmon enter the lake. From appearances the 
volume of discharge varies largely. 
The lake is hour-glass-shaped, and has a greatest length of li miles in a north- 
and-south direction, with a greatest width of i mile at the southern end. Except at 
the outlet, the lake is hemmed in by very precipitous mountains from 800 to 1,500 
feet high, in some places rising nearly vertically 600 or 800 feet. On approaching 
the northern end, however, it is seen that the inountaius lie a short distance back, 
leaving a rising wooded shelf a few hundred yards wide, except on the eastern side 
where the dry bed of a torrent appears in a narrow canyon, which extends back about 
a mile and ends in a cul-de-sac. 
Species. 
Dates. 
No. of 
fish. 
Cases 
packed. 
Eedtisli 
Colioes 
Hum])backs 
Redfish 
Cohoes 
Humpbacks 
June 22 to Aug. 20, 1896 
Aug. 15 to Sept. 25, 1896. . . . 
.Tulv 19 to Aug. 31, 1896 
June 27 to Aug. 28,1897.... 
Aug. 2 to Sept. 14, 1897.... 
July 19 to Sept. 1,1897 
103, 541 
10, 825 
64, 509 
8,351 
9, 338 
2, 157 
3, 863 
1 4, 058 
1, 576 
8, 436 
