THE SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 
137 
From Lake Eyak the outlet flows a straight course for a mile iii a south-southeast 
tlirectiou, and then turns about 1 point to the eastward. In this slight bend, on the 
left bank, the old native village of Eyak was located. It is now iiractically abandoned, 
the inhabitants having moved to Odiak, where they live in shacks and log-liouses 
scattered along the line of the tramway. Quite a number of white men who fish for 
the canneries remain in the country all winter, not only here, but in Cook Inlet, 
Kadiak Island, and elsewhere, but there seem to be more here than at other places. 
It is said that a few salmon are obtained by the Indians in Lake Eyak during 
the winter months. The water being very cold, it is probable that the cohoes do not 
spawn until very late, and the Indians may catch these fish, or possibly a few steel- 
heads may run here at this time. 
The natives in all parts of Alaska and the Aleutian chain prefer the fish well 
advanced toward spawning for their winter supply. In a country where the natives 
use rancid seal oil as a sauce for all delicacies, including strawberries and salmon 
berries, and bury salmon fresh from the sea for ten days or more to make them 
thoroughly ripe and palatable, and where a putrid whale carcass furnishes the choicest 
tid bits, a salmon well-ripened under natural conditions might be thought the proper 
food to prepare for winter. The idea is, however, that when taken from the si)awning- 
ground they are in poor condition from long fasting, and have very little fat or oil, so 
that the drying or smoking process is hastened. 
PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND. 
It is very difficult, in the absence of charts or maps, to describe the fisheries of 
this section. Time permitted only a survey of the waters in the vicinity of the 
canneries. The waters are entirely unsurveyed, extend over a large area, and are not 
well known. Chart B may give some idea of the situation. 
Tlie Copiier Kiver Delta, as before mentioned, is the principal source of fish 
supply for the canneries; the fish from Prince William Sound are simply an addition, 
and the total catch for all its streams would support only a very small cannery. The 
information regarding the streams of Prince William Sound was obtained from the 
cannery superintendents, masters of cannery steamers, and fishermen, modified some- 
what by carefully examining records whenever there was opportunity. 
The salmon streams of Prince William Sound resemble those of southeast Alaska, 
although as a rule they are inferior. The total catch for the whole district does not 
equal the catch of such streams as Quadra, Hetta, and others in a good season, and 
probably does not average over 125,000 redfish and 50,000 cohoes per season. The 
Pacific Steam Whaling Company’s cannery has never exceeded 32,000 redfish and 
35,000 cohoes per season from the sound. While there are many streams that contain 
humpbacks, they are not very plentiful in any one stream. In none do they run even 
as they do in the smaller streams of southeast Alaska, and they, as well as the redfish 
and cohoes, are decreasing yearly. In short, the district is poor in salmon, and the 
streams have been injured by injudicious and illegal fishing. 
Kor are the canneries the only drains upon the salmon streams. The Treasury 
Department has leased certain islands in Prince William Sound and along the Alaska 
Peninsula to individuals and organizations for the purpose of breeding foxes, and 
thousands of salmon are cured annually for fox food. 
