SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 
13 
The Humpback Salmon . — This is the smallest, the most abundant, and most widely 
distributed species of the Alaskan salmon. It arrives on the coast of Kadiak from the 
1st to the 10th of July, and continues to run for about five weeks, the height of the 
spawning season being early in August. It does not ascend far from salt water, and 
usually enters streams which are too shallow to cover its back fins. This species is 
not much used at present for canning purposes, but is dried by the natives in great 
quantities for winter use, and moderately large numbers are salted for the San Fran- 
cisco and other markets. When fresh run its flesh is not inferior in edible qualities to that 
of the red salmon, and has a beautiful red color, but rapidly deteriorates after it enters 
the estuaries of the rivers. This species, from its abundance and wide distribution, 
will attain great commercial importance when its good qualities are better known. 
The Dog Salmon . — This species occurs very abundantly in the small rivers and 
creeks of the islands and the main land. It makes its appearance at Kadiak about 
the middle of June and continues abundant for a month, after which the numbers 
rapidly diminish. It leaves the coast with the first appearance of ice. The flesh of this 
species will hardly ever be in request for canning, but it is one of the most important 
species to the natives, who dry it for winter use. 
REPRODUCTION AS RELATED TO METHODS 
The species of salmon above enumerated, though differing in their seasons of repro- 
duction and in their spawning habits and requiring different conditions and environ- 
ment, are all subject to the restraint of one common law: they must have access to 
their natural spawning-grounds in the rapids of the rivers or in the cold, snow-fed lakes 
from which they issue; and in this natural law is to be found the suggestion of such 
legislation as may be necessary “ to maintain the salmon fisheries under permanent 
conditions of production.” 
Whether these fisheries shall continue to furnish the opportunity for profitable 
enterprise and investment depends upon the policy to be inaugurated and maintained 
by the Government. Under judicious regulation and restraint they may be made a 
continuing source of wealth to the inhabitants of the Territory and an important food 
resource to the nation ; without such regulation and restraint, we shall have repeated 
in the Alaskan rivers the story of the Sacramento and the Columbia; and the destruc- 
tion in Alaska will be much more rapid because of the small size of the rivers and 
the ease with which salmon can be prevented from ascending them. For a few years 
there will be wanton waste of that marvelous abundance, which the fishermen — con 
cerned only for immediate profit and utterly improvident of the future — declare to be 
inexhaustible. This season of prosperity will be followed by a rapid decline in the 
value and production of these fisheries, and a point will be eventually reached where 
the salmon-canning industry will be no longer profitable. 
PROTECTIVE REGULATION OF THE FISHERIES. 
Whatever may be the particular regulations and requirements it shall be found 
necessary to impose in the prosecution of the salmon fishery in order to maintain the 
supply, it is essential they should provide either that a considerable proportion of the 
run into the rivers shall be permitted to pass up and accomplish natural reproduction 
in the lakes and tributary streams, which afford feeding-grounds for the young salmon 
