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BALL. 
quality, are less esteemed commercially than the eastern 
cod. For some reason I do not understand the Pacific 
ocean at best offers but a small market for fish under pres¬ 
ent conditions, and so I look to see the codfishing industry 
develop slowly and perhaps be the last as it is, in my opin¬ 
ion, the most substantial and important of the resources of 
the territory. At present the salmon are commercially 
more important, but unless more effectively supervised and 
regulated they will meet with the same fate as the fisheries 
of California and the Columbia river. There should be a 
resident inspector at every important fishery, and as the 
business is carried on for at most two or three months in 
the year, a vigilant inspection by a cutter or fisheries vessel 
told off for this especial work would counteract any tendency 
to bribe the resident inspector. I have seen 3,500,000 
pounds of canned salmon taken in one season from one 
small stream, representing at least 5,000,000 pounds of eat¬ 
able fish, and it seems that an annual supply of the best fish 
food like that is worth preserving; but if the work is to be 
put into the hands of the lowest class of political appointees 
instead of intelligent experts, making the offices will not 
save the fish. 
In the matter of furs we may regard the fur-seal fishery 
as doomed. It is probable that few of the pelagic sealers 
will pay expenses after this season, and two or three years 
are likely to see the end of the business. It is costing us 
much more than the catch is worth now, and the most 
sensible way of ending the matter is generally felt to be the 
destruction at one fell swoop of all the seals remaining on 
the islands and the abandonment of the business. 
The continental furs, owing to competition between traders, 
are now selling for nearly their full market value, and little 
profit can be expected from them. They are also growing 
more and more scarce, as the high prices stimulate trapping. 
The natural and satisfactory offset to this would be the estab¬ 
lishment of preserves, such as the a fox farms,” of which men¬ 
tion has been frequently made in the daily press. Many of 
