144 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
salmon, to make a case of the canned goods. Two and one-half of the king salmon 
are equivalent to the same amount. 
Each cannery has hitherto maintained from one to five traps for capturing 
salmon, hut the yield by this means has not warranted the expense of keeping them 
in repair. The main body of the trap is made of twine, but the leaders are constructed 
of galvanized wire netting, which is better adapted to withstand the pressure of drift 
material brought down by the current. Notwithstanding every precaution, however, 
they are frequently swept away. Gill nets have now been adopted by all the canneries, 
as affording the best results. Two sizes are in use. The one for king salmon measures 
100 fathoms long by 23§ feet deep, and has a 9^-inch mesh; the other, for red and 
silver salmon, is 70 fathoms long by 13 feet deep, and has a 6^-inch mesh. They 
seldom last more than a single season, as they are subject to very hard usage. 
The salmon are sometimes most abundant a considerable distance above the 
canneries, or from 40 to 50 miles from the mouth of the river; At such times the fish- 
ermen are carried to the fishing-grounds, where they live on board of the scow lighters 
ordinarily employed for discharging and loading vessels, a steam launch being used to 
tow the latter. 
Under instructions received from the Secretary of the Treasury, Oapt. Tanner 
inspected the site of a proposed large fish-trap on Wood River, a tributary of the 
Nushagak River, which, it had been reported, would prove an obstruction to the 
movements of salmon within the intent of the law of Congress approved March 2, 
1889. He found that a double trap was being built about 20 miles above the mouth 
of the river and 40 miles from the Nushagak cannery. The Wood River at this point 
is a swift running stream of clear, cold water, between 700 and 800 feet wide, and 10 
to 14 feet deep. Operations had not progressed sufficiently to indicate the character 
and extent of the work, but the plans contemplated an opening in midstream 100 feet 
wide, flanked on each side by a trap 40 feet square, with wings extending from the 
traps to the shores. The Secretary of the Treasury has decided that such a construc- 
tion would be illegal. 
UN ALASKA ISLAND AND VICINITY. 
This island has been visited several times by the Albatross in the course of the Alas- 
kan investigations, from 1888 to 1892, principally for the purpose of coaling or repair- 
ing, but much valuable information has been secured regarding the fishery resources 
of the contiguous waters and the hydrography of the neighboring region. On 
approaching the Aleutian Chain, at the beginning of the season of 1888, a line of 
soundings was carried inshore to a depth of 28 fathoms, off Kiliuliuk Bay, on the 
southern side of the island. Subsequently the Albatross proceeded into Bering Sea 
through Unimak Pass and entered Unalaska Harbor from the north, the return trip 
to the Pacific Ocean being made by way of Unalga Pass. The hydrographic obser- 
vations obtained during these two passages, sailing directions, and a general account 
of the fishery resources and native industries of Unalaska Harbor have been pub- 
lished in the Bulletin for 1888 (F. C. 8, pp. 19-22) and in the appendix to the Com- 
missioner’s report for the same year (F. C. 7, pp. 397-400). 
During the summer of 1890 a general reconnoissance was made of the submerged 
platform off the entire northern and western sides of the island. Akutan Pass was 
