132 
BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES PISH COMMISSION. 
In 1896, 3,000 cases of redtish Aveie taken in seines in Prince William Sound and 
the remainder in gill nets from the Copper Eiver Delta. Of the cohoes, half were 
taken in seines and half in gill nets. 
The Indians say that after the cannery closes there are plenty of fish. 
The terms of the Pacific Steam Whaling Company with their fishermen are as 
follows: Of the number employed, 20 are paid $40 each for taking the vessel with the 
outfit from San Francisco to the cannery, and back in the fall with the pack. From 
the beginning of the fishing season until it closes, each fisherman receives $15 per 
month and board, and the cannery pays to each boat outfit (2 men) 3 cents each for 
redfish and cohoes, 10 cents for king salmon, and $5 iier 1,000 for humpbacks. 
Fishermen to make good wages should take 10,000 fish to a boat (2 men) during a 
season, and this catch was formerly quite frequent, but large catches are very rare 
now, and there is much complaint among the fishermen. In 1890, with 150 fathoms of 
web they could average from 7,000 to 8,000 fish to a boat, and now with 450 fathoms 
of web they barely average half that number. 
As these two eanneries at Orca and Odiak were built the same year, have 
operated during the same periods, and fish over the same localities, the remarks in 
reference to the fishing are applicable to both. The fish are taken in two entirely 
different sections, differing but little in distance, yet widely in their runs and fishing 
methods. The canneries are located on the dividing line separating the two sections 
and are accessible to both. Eounding Cape Whiteshed to the eastward extends the 
Copper Eiver delta, which is the gill-net fishing- ground, similar to the fishing in the 
large rivers of Bering Sea, while to the westward extends Prince William Sound 
Avhich represents the drag-seine fishing, a counterpart of southeast Alaska, with its 
many small streams, each affording a few fish. 
In 1889 the two cannei ies on Little Kayak Island drew their fish from the Copper 
Eiver delta and the rivers in the vicinity of Little Kayak. In 1890, after the removal 
of the Central Alaska Company to Thin Point, the Peninsular Trading and Fishing- 
Company made its pack from the same source. After its removal to Coquenhena, 
and until dismantled in 1897, its fish suitply came from the Copper Eiver delta. 
The first pack, about 20,000 cases in 1889, was made by the two canneries at 
Odiak almost entirely from the lake and river at Byak. In 1890 the fish were 
obtained from Eyak Lake and Eiver, Mountain Slough, a branch of the latter, Glacier 
Eiver, and Algonek Slough in the delta, and from Miuei’’s Eiver and Cheniga in Prince 
William Sound. As fish became scarce, fishing operations were extended as far east- 
ward as Chilkhat Eiver (not to be confounded with the Chilkat Eiver at the head of 
Lynn Canal) a distance of about 75 miles by steamer; to the Avestward all the streams 
in Prince William Sound were reached, a run for the steamers of from 85 to 90 miles. 
The main source of supply, however, now comes from the Copper Eiver delta, Avhich 
includes Eyak Eiver on the Avest and Chilkhat Eiver on the east, though neither takes 
its source from the Coiiper Eiver. 
The great fiats that make offshore between Point Steel and Kayak Island have 
no doubt been formed by the detritus from the Copper Eiver, and are usually spoken 
of as its delta. 
The first stream along the shore eastward from the canneries is Mountain Slough, 
an outlet or slough of Byak Eiver, having its mouth in the corner of the bight formed 
by the headland, of which Cape Whiteshed is the terminal point, and the mainland 
extending to the Avestward from Copper Eiver. About a mile to the eastward is the 
