134 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
the east, are great sand and mud flats extending from 3 to 6 and more miles from 
the shore and marshes. Most of these flats are dry at low water, but they have 
channel-ways through them seaward from the larger sloughs, and shallow channels 
and pools between them which admit the passage of light-draft stern- wheel steamers. 
It is probable that Copper Eiver originally discharged into a large irregular bay, which 
gradually filled and formed the present delta, and the flats outside are merely the 
foundations for its farther expansion seaward. 
The conditions here admit gill-net fishing only, which is done by drifting with 
Columbia Eiver boats, 2 men and 450 fathoms of web constituting an outfit. There 
are stations or bunk-houses at different points within the sloughs, where the fishermen 
live and from which the catch is taken to the canneries by the small stern-wheel 
steamers calling for them. These steamers, of which there are two at eacli cannery, 
have a draft of 24 inches and navigate the shallow waters of the delta. At low water 
they are frequently aground. 
The king salmon packed at the canneries are obtained in the delta, and commence 
to run about May G; scattering ones are taken all summer. While this pack has 
never been very large, the catch has decreased rapidly during the past few years, 
and to such an extent that in 1896 some of the interior Indians were reported to be 
on the verge of starvation on account of this scarcity of king salmon, which forms a 
large item of their food. In 1897 there was great rejoicing among the Stick Indians 
when they heard that the cannery at Ooquenhena would not be operated. It seems 
hardly probable, in a locality where the natural conditions permit only fishing by gill 
nets, that the fishermen should have caused this decrease, yet it is said that the nets 
are placed at such short intervals that they lie almost back to back and side by side. 
The following catches of king salmon, from the books of the Pacific Steam 
Whaling Company, show the number taken per year by one cannery: 
Tear. 
D<ate.s. 
Number, j 
Tear. 
Hates. 
Number. 
1890 
1891 
1892 
Ma 5 '' 5 to June 30 
Ajtr. 27 to June 30 
Closed ..... . ... 
5,491 
6,185 
1894 
1895 
189G 
May 11 to June 30 
M.ay 8 to June 29 
May 15 to June 30 
4,494 
5, 929 
590 
1, 049 
1893 
May 2 to Juuo 30 
8,674 
May 10 to J line 30 
The mud slough on which both canneries were originally located is less than half 
a mile in length and inaccessible at low water. During the packing season, when 
the mud banks are covered with salmon offal and refuse, they become very foul, and 
were it not for the myriads of gulls which act as scavengers, it is difficult to see how 
any one could live in the locality. 
Three-fourths of a mile distant from the cannery at Odiak, in a general northeast 
direction over a low neck of land, is the head of the southwest arm of Lake Eyak. A 
tramway from the cannery extends to this point and terminates on a small wharf on 
the lake shore. The lake is T-shaped; that is, there are three arms, each widening 
toward the junction and extending in northwest, southwest, and southeast directions 
respectively. These arms are about 2^ miles long with an extreme width of about 
a mile, with the main body or junction much enlarged. The shore line is rocky, the 
banks are heavily wooded, and in places are high and steep where they run directly 
into the mountain masses. There are many places which are quite shallow, rocky 
in some instances, and with gravel and sand bottom in others. The surface of the 
lake is on a level with the highest tide; indeed, tide water sometimes backs into the 
