THE SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES OP ALASKA. 
167 
made a pack that year ami in 1897. Its capacity is 800 cases per day. In 1890 it 
employed 30 white lisliermen, 15 Avhite cannery-hands, and 58 Cliinese. Its nets 
included 5 traps, 40 feet square pots, with leads of 150 to 200 fathoms, valued at 1,100 
each; 2 drag seines, 250 fathoms long, 3 inch mesh, valued at $1.50 per fathom. The 
vessels and boats employed were the steamer Solmo, of 35 tons, with a crew of 4, and 
valued at $7,000; the bark J. IK Peters, which carried the outfit to the station in 
April and called in the fall for the pack; 11 lighters and scows, valued at $50 to $150 
each; 1 pile-driver, valued at $050; 4 seine boats, valued at $00 each; and a number 
of dories, skiffs, etc. 
In 1897 the company employed 00 white fishermen, 15 white cannery-hands, and 
58 Chinese. The remainder of the outfit used is the same as for 1890, except that 8 
traps, instead of 5, were in use, and 2 pile-drivers instead of 1. 
The following shows the pack of the Anchorage Bay cannery of the Pacific kSteam 
Whaling Company for 1890 and 1897 : 
Year. 
Species. 
Humber 
of cases 
Ijacked. 
Number 
of tish 
per case. 
Date of piickiug. 
Remarks. 
1896.... 
Rpdfisli from Cliignik - 
11, 000 
10 
Juno 18 to Aug. 25. . 
Taken in traps. 
Kedtish from Karluk .. 
1,500 
12 
do 
Do. 
Cohoes 
90 
11 
July 18 to Aug. 15 .. 
Do. 
Humpbacks 
2, 800 
20 
d uly 20 to Aug. 20 . . 
Taken in seines. 
King salmon 
125 
3 
Tbrougliout .season. 
Do. 
1897 
Reddsli 
23, 500 
12 
Juno 9 to Aug. 15. . . 
About 1,500 redfisb from Karluk 
Humpbacks 
Cohoes ami king 
500 
20 
July 20 to Aug. 15 .. 
were nor, in condition for |iack. 
ing and were not used. 
A few taken, but not separately 
accounted for. 
The Chinese contract differs slightly according to locality, and more largely 
according to the manner of making the pack. The contract for one cannery was 40 
cents per case for machine-filled cans and 45 cents for hand-filled. The Chinese boss 
was i>aid $50 a month in addition to his lay, and the tester $50 a month without lay. 
Passage to and from San Francisco was free, but they found their own food and 
bedding, only water and salt being furnished by the vessel. Quarters, fuel, water, 
and salt were furnished at the cannery. In all of the Alaska canneries the Chinese 
contract includes a guaranteed pack — that is, the cannery insures a pack of a certain 
number of cases; if it is not made, the Chinamen are paid the stipulated pack; if the 
pack overruns, they are paid extra at the same rates. 
The contracts with the fishermen differ somewhat at each cannery, but they are 
usually made with the view of getting the largest number of fish and allowing the 
fishermen about $45 a mouth and board for G or 7 months. At one cannery in Chiguik, 
in 1896, fishermen were paid $3(i per month and one-fourth of a cent per case and 
board. They worked the vessel to and from the cannery. In 1897 the same cannery 
paid the Scandinavian fishermen the same rates as in 1896, but the Italians received 
$20 per month, $12.50 per 1,000 fish, and a per diem allowance of 35 cents per man 
for a ration. The boss fisherman had an extra $125 for the season. Nearly the same 
rates are made at all the canneries here. 
Nearly all the fish packed in the canneries located on Chignik Bay are taken in 
Chignik Lagoon and the immediate vicinity. In 1896, on account of the very large 
run at Karluk, the canneries there could not handle all the fish taken on the spit — 
that is, they did not have outfit enough — and fish to the amount of about 20,000 cases 
